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TAKEN 

In the time of Queen El^lZA^BETH, Km^^fAMES, 

andKingCHJ1{LES'^ 

CoUeded and Reporred by that learned Lawyer 

WILLIAM NOY. 

Sometimes Reader of the Honourable Sociecie of 

LINCOLNES-INNE, 

SINCE 

ATTOVRNEY GENERALL 

tothelate KING CHJ^LES. 

Conteining moft Excellent matter of Ex- 
ceptions to all manner of Declarations, Pleadings, 
and Demurrers, that there is fcarce one Acftion 
in a Probability of being brought, but here it is 
throughly examin'd and Exactly layd. 



0\[m tranjlited into Englifl^i 



Wi;h Two neceffary Tables of the Cafes and Contents, for 
the Readers eafe and benefit. 



Printed by F. L, for Mattheib WJbancke at GrayaslnneGzit, and T. Ftyh^ 

near Crajes-Inne Gate in Hollwn^^ 1656. 

(See Page 36) 



Law Sports at Gray's Inn 

(1594) 



Including Shakespeare's connection 
with the Inn's of Court, the origin 
of the Capias Utlegatum re Coke 
and Bacon, Francis Bacon's 
connection with Warwickshire, 
together with a reprint of the 
Gesta Grayorum 

By Basil Brown jvi^^J, 

Author "Notes on Elizabethen Poets," 

"Supposed Caricature of the Droeshout 

Portrait of Shakespeare," etc. 



NEW YORK 

1921 






^Va 



Copyright 1921 
Bv Basil Brown 



Privately Printed by the Author 

APR 'db 1921 
0)CiA611970 



To Gray's Inn 

"Old PurpiiUi Britain's Ornament" 
the Author Dedicates this humble offering 



CONTENTS 



Introduction i-xciv 

Shakespeare's Connection Witli the Inns of Court 1-25 

Sliakespeare's Plays Controlled by Bacon's Frkuids 26- 34 

Why Queen Elizabeth Neglected Bacon — That Caijids Vtlcyatum . 34- 35 

Origin of '"CapUtn Itlcfjafiim" Insult Offered to Bacon by Queen 

Elizabeth's Attorney-Cieneral. Sir Edward Coke 37- 49 

Francis Bacon's Connection With Warwickshire and the Forest 

of Arden 50- 7S 

Bacon's Connection With the Burbage's 79-119 

You Would Pluck Out the Heart of My Mystery 120-150 

Shakespeare's Lodgings in Silver Street 151-155 

Bacon's Warwickshire Kinsmen and the Underhih's 156-161 

Was Anne Cecil the Prototype of Helena in "All's Well" 162-168 

Appendix A — 

History of the Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Com- 
be. Be Sir John Far<tolfs Ward 169-176 

Appendix B — 

Edmund Tilney, Master of the Bevels 177-182 

Appendix C — 

List of Lands Owned by the Cooke's. Lords of Ilartshill 184-188 



INTRODUCTION 

"It is a point fit and necessary in the front 
or beginning of this work without hesitation or 
reservation to be professed, that it is no less true 
in this human kingdom of knowledge than in 
God's Kingdom of Heaven, that no man shall 
enter into it except he become first as a little 
child." — Bacon's Valerius Terminus. 

Shakespeare clothes the same truth as follows: 

Hel. "He that of greatest works is finisher, 

Oft does them by the weakest minister; 
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown. 
When judges hath been babes. Great floods 

have flown 
From simple sources; and great seas have 

dried. 
When miracles have by the greatest been 

denied." All's Well—ll-i. 

The spirit of Truth breathes through these lines of 
Bacon's, for he had in his nature a quality of divine- 
ness. The same idea as expressed by Shakespeare is a 

"Truth in beauty dyed." 
The above quotations assimilate so well, and seem 
so of a piece, that I cannot divorce the one from the 
other, especially in these pages where their authors 
are so often referred to. And to confess a truth to 
the patient reader, they gave me courage to begin this, 
the second reprint of the Gesta Grayorum in 1913, and 
caused me to think as Helena did in All's Well, 

"What I can do, can do no hurt to try.'' 



Search was made at Columbia University Library,. 
Congressional Library and British Museum, but none 
of these Libraries possess a copy of the Gesta Gray- 
orum. It was not until this reprint was in book pages 
that Mr. Frederic W. Erb, Supervisor of the loan 
department of Columbia University Library (to whom 
I am extremely indebted) procured from the Boston 
Public Library a facsimile of the title page of its 
copy of the Gesta Grayoriun, which is used in this 
reprint. My best thanks are also due to Mr. W. A. 
White of Brooklyn, who kindly lent me his fine orig- 
inal copy of the Gesta Grayorum, from which I have 
copied W. Canning's Dedication to Matthew Smyth, 
Esq. Mr. White's library contains some of the rarest 
books known to collectors. 

An exact copy has also been made of the title page, 
as well as the page containing the ''Capias Utlegatum" 
— which Attorney General Coke would have clapped 
upon Bacon's back. This I discovered in Sir William 
Noy's "Reports and Cases taken in the Time of Queen 
Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles/' London. 
1656 folio. (See frontis page.) 

This "Capias Utlegatum" has given birth to many 
cryptograms and biliteral ciphers undeserving of be- 
lief; and I venture to say they have brought more dis- 
credit on the fame of Francis Bacon than the original 
writ of outlawry itself. 

Interwoven in a web of mystery, seemed to me the 
two greatest names in P^nglish literature — Francis 
Bacon and William Shakespeare. Were it not for the 
Northumberland Manuscript, wherein these two names 



co-mingle and are forever entwined, as early as 1594 
(because ''Orations at Graie's Inne Revells" . . . 
''By Mr. Francis Bacon," is mentioned as a part of its 
contents), we would never have known that Bacon 
composed the speeches for the six Councillors in the 
Gesta G ray or 11 m . 

Spedding, commenting on the Gesta Grayorum and 
these speeches, says: 

"Thus ended one of the most elegant Christ- 
mas entertainments, probably, that was ever 
presented to an audience of statesmen and cour- 
tiers. That Bacon had a hand in the general 
design is merely a conjecture; we know that he 
had a taste in such things and did sometimes take 
a part in arranging them; and the probability 
seemed strong enough to justify a more detailed 
account of the whole evening's work than I 
should otherwise have thought fit. But that the 
speeches of the six councillors were written by 
him, and by him alone, no one who is at all fa- 
miliar with his style, either of thought or ex- 
pression, will for a moment doubt it. They 
carry his signature in every sentence. And they 
have a much deeper interest for us than could 
have been looked for in such a sportive exercise 
belonging to so forgotten a form of idleness. 
All these councillors speak with Bacon's tongue 
and out of Bacon's brain; but the second and 
fifth speak out of his heart and judgment also. 
The propositions of the latter contain an enume- 
ration of those very reforms, in state and gov- 
ernment, which throughout his life he was most 
anxious to see realized. In those of the former 
may be traced, faintly but unmistakably, a first 
hint of his great project for the restoration of 



the dominion of knowledge, — a first draft of 
'Solomon's House/ — a rudiment of that history 
of universal nature, which was to have formed 
the third part of the 'Instauratio,' and is in my 
judgment (as I have elsewhere explained at 
large) the principal novelty and great charac- 
teristic feature of the Baconian philosophy. 
This composition is valuable, therefore, not 
only as showing with what fidelity his mind 
when left to itself pointed always, in sport as in 
earnest, towards the great objects which he had 
set before him, but also as giving us one of the 
very few certain dates by which we can measure 
the progress of his philosophical speculations in 
these early years." — Letters and Life of Francis 
Bacon, Vol. I, p. 342 et seq. 

Nor would we have known Francis Davison, and 
Thomas Campion had collaborated in the Masque of 
Proteus, had not Davison in his Poetical Rhapsody, 
1602-1608, revealed the fact. It is by these mosaics or 
piecing bits together that the student mus| endeavor 
to peep behind the curtain of the Gesta X^rayorum 
sports and revels. 

In Spedding's account of the Gesta Grayorum, he 
says: 

"It is a pity that the publisher, whoever he 
was, did not tell us a little more about the manu- 
script, though it is probable enough that he had 
not much more to tell. Nothing is more natural 
than that such a narrative should have been writ- 
ten at the time for the amusement and satisfac- 
tion of the parties concerned; should have been 
laid by and forgotten: and found again lying by 
itself, without anybody to tell its story for it." — 
Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, Vol. I, p. 343. 



The writer hopes to tell some of its story and of the 
actors in it. Francis Davison, the poet, who acted in 
the Gesta Grayorum, mentions having ''lent" to "Eleaz 
Hodgson" "Grayes 'In Sportes' under Sir Henry 
Helmes." N. H. Nicolas, Ed. Poetical Rhapsody. 

Henry Helmes (our Prince of Portpoole) was not 
knighted until 1603 at Whitehall by James I. 

As has been said, Campion and Davison composed 
the Masque of Proteus which was performed before 
the Queen at Greenwich Palace at Shrovetide, 1594-5. 
In 1602 Davison brought out his Poetical Rhapsody 
and in one of his sonnets "To his first love" is the fol- 
lowing: 

"Upon presenting her with the Speech at Gray's 
Inn Mask, at the court, 1594, 
Consisting of three parts — the story of Proteus' 

Transformations, 
The Wonders of the Adamantine Rock, and a 
Speech to her Majesty." 

"Who in these lines may better claim a part. 
That sing the praises of the maiden Queen, 
Than you, fair sweet, that only sovereign been 
Of the poor kingdom of my faithful heart? 
Or, to whose view should I this speech impart; 
Where the adamantine rock's great power is 
shown ; 
But to your conq'ring eyes, whose force once 
known. 
Makes even iron hearts loath thence to part? 
Or who of Proteus' sundry transformations. 

May better send you the new feigned story 
Than I, whose love unfeigned felt no mutations, 
Since to be yours I first received the glory? 



Accept then, of these lines, though meanly 
penned. 
So fit for you to take and me to send." 

In this Sonnet it will be noted Davison only refers 
to "the speech" or to the lines, ''That sing the praises 
of the maiden Queen." There was more than one 
speech recited by the two speakers in the Mask, an 
Esquire and Proteus. The others were singers and 
musicians. 

Knowing the sad history of young Davison's father, 
these lines in praise of the stony-hearted Queen are 
pathetic in the extreme. Elizabeth's character was 
diametrically opposite to this ideal of the poet, and 
none knew this better than her flatterers. I think 
Davison spoke the speech of the Esquire himself, hop- 
ing to bring the remembrance of his sorrowing father 
to the Queen's notice. The Earl of Essex and Francis 
and Anthony Bacon were in sympathy with young 
Davison, who was distantly related to the Bacons. See 
A. H. Bullen's Ed. of the Poetical Rhapsody, 1891, for 
Davison's letters to Anthony Bacon, Secretary to the 
Earl of Essex, 1596. 

When Elizabeth failed to get two honorable men, 
Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drue Drury, to secretly 
assassinate Mary, Queen of Scots, she sneered at their 
"daintiness." Even after she had signed the warrant 
for Mary's execution and returned it to the Secretary, 
Sir William Davison, she desired him to "hint to 
Paulet that he might privately rid her of his trouble- 
some charge." After Mary was beheaded, Elizabeth 
had Davison arrested and sent to the Tower, although 



he was suffering at the time with palsy. He was fined 
"ten thousand marks and imprisonment in the Tower 
during the Queen's pleasure." Her "pleasure" kept 
him in the Tower until 1589, although in his own 
words he had' "acted sincerely, soundly and honestly." 
Elizabeth remained deaf to his petition and he died 
in 1608 without regaining her favor. Davison, after 
paying his fine, was reduced to poverty and left little 
for his six children, two of whom, Francis and Chris- 
topher, were students of Gray's Inn. 

"Errors like straws upon the surface flow; 
Who would search for pearls must dive below." 

The Gesta Grayorum must excite the interest of 
every true lover of Shakespeare, for in its pages the 
student will view to the life many of the men and 
women for whom he wrote the immortal poems and 
plays. 

Among the illustrious men, the following are named : 

"On the 3d of January at night, there was a 
most honourable presence of great and noble 
personages, that came as invited to our Prince; 
as namely, the Hight Honourable the Lord 
Keeper, the Earls of Shrewsbury, Cumberland, 
Northumberland, Southampton, and Essex; the 
Lords Buckhurst, Windsor, Mountjoy, Shef- 
field, Compton, Rich, Burleygh, Mounteagle, 
and the Lord Thomas Howard; Sir Thomas 
Henneage, Sir Robert Cecill; with a great num- 
ber of knights, ladies, and very worshipful per- 
sonages; all of which had convenient places, 
and very good entertainment, to their good lik- 
ing and contentment." P. 33, Gesta Grayorum. 



The Great Queen herself is shown as gracing the 
gentlemen of Gray's Inn and especially compliment- 
ing their Prince of Purpoole, young Henry Helmes of 
Norfolk. Elizabeth was over sixty years old. Did 
her memory go back to "a grand and solemn Christ- 
mas" performed by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple 
in 1561? On that occasion her favorite, Lord Robert 
Dudley, was the "chief performer, and lord governor, 
or Prince and patron of the honorable Order of Pe- 
gasus/' Twenty-four gentlemen of the Inner Temple 
were by him dubbed "Knights of the Order of 
Pegasus." Dugales Origines. Gray's Inn sent an Am- 
bassador to "grace" this Masque of Palaphilos — "Be- 
cause our State of Gray a did grace Tempi aria with 
the presence of an Ambassador about thirty years 
since." P. 29, Gesta Grayorum. Hesiod implies that 
"the winged horse yoked to Jove's Chariot bears Jove's 
thunders and lightnings." Thirty-three years had 
flown since that eventful time but still the Queen 
seemed to keep her age . . . "in youth's immortal 
flower," according to her flattering poet in 1599. 

Francis Bacon was born January 22, 1561. Just a 
month after her favorite. Lord Robert Dudley, had 
inaugurated the Order of Pegasus, and from the time 
that he could lisp her name he adored the Queen. In 
the Sports and Revels at Gray's Inn, he was always 
head and front. It is probable he contrived the Order 
of the Helmet^ as well as composed the six Councillors' 
speeches in the Gesta Grayorum. 

In 1870 Spedding edited a part of what is now 
called the Northumberland Manuscript. This had 



been found by Mr. John Bruce at Northumberland 
House in August, 1867. Herein were "found the 
transcripts of the papers of Bacon" which were com- 
municated to Spedding by Bruce, who says: 

"I mentioned this circumstance at the time to 
some members of the family of the Duke of 
Northumberland, who took an interest in what 
I was about. I pointed it out as a subject for 
further inquiry, and at the same time directed 
attention to the oddity of the recurrence and 
combination of the names of Bacon and Shakes- 
peare in the scribble on the fly-leaf of the MS." 

Speddings in his comment on this says: 

"The name Shakespeare is spelt in every case 
as it was always printed in those days, and not as 
he himself in any case ever wrote it." — A Con- 
ference of Pleasure, p. xxv. 

The outside cover of the manuscript has two quota- 
tions from Shakespeare, one being: 

^'Revealing day through every cranie peeps." 

In the list of its contents Shakespeare's Rich. II and 
Rich. Ill are mentioned, also: "Orations at Gray's 
Inne Rev el Is." 

My opinion is that the Gesta Grayorum was origin- 
ally a part of the Northumberland Manuscript, which 
was written circa 1594- 1597.. The original was first 
printed by W. Canning in 1688 and dedicated "To 
the most Honorable Mathew Smyth, Esq., Comptroller 
of The Honorable Society of The Inner Temple." 
Where or when Canning found it is not known. 



To the student of Elizabethan literature the Gesta 
Grayorum is of inestimable value. In it are brought to- 
gether the principal officers of Elizabeth's Court, peers 
of the realm, great lawyers, noblemen, knights and 
gentlemen, and although last, not least, the most emi- 
nent men of letters, Thomas Sackville, Lord Buck- 
hurst, Bacon, Thomas Campion, poet and physician, 
Francis Davison, and I have reason to believe John 
Lyly was also present among these poets, and that he 
collaborated in the masques and dumb shows. 

Persistent research leads me also to believe that 
Shakespeare wrote his Comedy of Errors for this oc- 
casion. It fits in perfectly with the ''law sports." Ref- 
erence to the Gesta Grayorum has hitherto, like a will- 
o-the-wisp, flitted through many Shakespearean books, 
but the inquiring mind has not been satisfied with these 
allusions. The original manuscript, as I have said 
before, was printed by W. Canning in 1688. Mr. John 
Nichols published the first reprint of same in his 
Progresses of Elizabeth, 1788-1823. Spedding said: 
"The printed copy in Gesta Grayorum is full of errors." 

I had not even that to follow when I made this, the 
second reprint of the work, but have copied that of 
Nichols in his Progresses of Elizabeth, Ed. 1823, III, 
p. 262. Nichols says : "This tract was printed in 1688 
for W. Canning, at his shop in the Temple Cloysters. 
The publisher was Mr. Henry Keepe, who published 
the monuments of Westminster." Henry Keepe was 
an antiquary, and published several works. 

This, the second reprint of the Gesta Grayorum, 
has been in type pages for six years, but owing to the 



terrible world war and the writer's illness, could not 
be published until now. 

It has been shown that the names of Francis Bacon 
and William Shakespeare have been linked together 
as early as 1594- 1597, in the Northumberland Manu- 
script, and these super-eminent men are again brought 
into close touch in the Gesta Grayorum. Bacon was 
born great, Shakespeare achieved greatness; but the 
student well knows that even the well-born men of 
illustrious family did not and could not succeed in that 
age, without a "friend at Court." 

The peerless Bacon himself did not secure an office 
in State afifairs until long after Elizabeth's death 
(June, 1607) when he was 46 years of age. Is it not 
plausible therefore to think that the unknown youth 
from Stratford could not have leaped, Minerva-like, 
into the highest sphere of intellectual life without a 
most potent friend at Court? It is my belief that 
Shakespeare's friend was Francis Bacon. It follows 
therefore that through Bacon's influence Shakespeare 
first secured an entrance to the theatre, and afterwards, 
through the same power, became one of the "Lord 
Chamberlain's Servants." Up to the time of the Gesta 
Grayorum, in fact up to 1598, the Shakespeare plays 
had appeared anonymously, but on the very date on 
which the Comedy of Errors was performed at Gray's 
Inn, Shakespeare's name is for the first time recorded 
among the Lord Chamberlain's servants, /. e., the 
players. When not performing at Court, the Lord 
Chamberlain's players were allowed to play "pub- 
liquely." There is no record or any contemporary evi- 



dence that Shakespeare teas ever a manager of a com- 
pany of players, or of a theatre. The Burbages, James 
and Cuthbert his son, were theatre managers. There 
is no record either of Shakespeare ever having received 
payments for the company. 

Knight's Biography of Shakespeare (p. 473^ Ed. 
1882) says: 

"The last entry in the books of the Treasurer 
of the Chamber during the reign of Elizabeth 
' ... is the following: 

" 'To John Heminges and the rest of his com- 
panie, servaunts to the Lorde Chamberleyne, 
uppon the councells warraunte, dated at White- 
hall the XXth of Aprill, 1603, for their paines 
and expenses in presentinge before the late 
Queenes Majesty twoe' playes, the one uppon 
St. Stephens day at nighte and thother upon 
Candlemas day at night, for each of which they 
' were, allowed, by way of her Majesty's rewarde, 
tenne pounds, amounting in all to XX.' " 
This shows Heminge was the business manager of 
the Lord Chamberlain's servants, of which Shakespeare 
was one. 

In the accounts of the treasurer of the Chamber from 
1594 (Gesta Grayorum time) to Shakespeare's death 
in 1616, John Heminge received payments for the plays 
by warrants of the Lord Chamberlain. During the 
troubles of the Earl of Essex, Augustine Phillips was 
the manager. 

When, out of courtesy to King James L Lord Hund- 
son's men became the "King's servants" in 1603, John 
Heminge continued to receive the payments for plays 
from that date up to 1625, when James L died. 



Heminge was not only the treasurer of the company 
but was also a manager. I find he continued to receive 
the payments up to the time of his death in 1630. No- 
where is there found contemporary mention of 
"Shakespeare's company." This the student ought to 
bear in mind, if he would be exact. The plays were 
called Shakespeare's. John Heminge and Henry 
Condell in the Folio of 1623 refer to him as "our friend 
and fellow." 

When Hamlet had caught the conscience of the King 
with his dumb show and play, he turns to Horatio, his 
friend, and says: "Would not this Sir, and a forest of 
feathers (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk [cruel] 
with me . . . ) get me a fellowship in a cry of 
players. Sir?" 

Knight says, "A cry of players was a company; a 
fellowship was a participation in the profits." We 
know from Prof. Wallace's discoveries that Shakes- 
peare owned at least a whole share and a quarter in 
1599, but "his final interest in the Globe exceeded by 
very little a fourteenth part of the whole property." 
Lee's Life, p. 305. 

During all this period of "Errors" dumb shows, ora- 
tions, masques and mummings at Gray's Inn, Francis 
Bacon was sufi'ering an "exquisite disgrace." In a 
letter to Essex (1594) he writes: 

My Lord, 

I thank your Lordship very much for your 
kind and comfortable letter, which I hope will 
be followed at hand with another of more assur- 
ance. And I must confess this very delay hath 
gone so near me, as it hath almost overthrown 



my health. For when I revolved the good mem- 
ory of my father, the near degree of alliance I 
stand to my Lord Treasurer [William Cecil], 
your Lordship's so signalled and declared 
favour, the honorable testimony of so many 
counsellors, the commendation unlaboured and 
in sort offered by my Lords the Judges and the 
Master of the Rolls elect; that I was voiced with 
great expectation, and (though I say it myself) 
with the wishes of most men, to the higher 
place; that I am a man that the Queen hath 
already done for; and princes, especially her 
Majesty, loveth to make an end where they be- 
gin; and then add hereunto the obscureness and 
many exceptions to my competitors; when (I 
say) I resolve all this, I cannot but conclude 
with myself that no man ever received a more 
exquisite disgrace. And therefore truly, my 
Lord, I was determined, and am determined, if 
her Majesty reject me, this to do. My nature 
can take no evil ply; but I will by God's assist- 
ance, with this disgrace of my fortune, and yet 
with that comfort of the good opinion of so many 
worthy and honorable persons, retire myself 
with a couple of men to Cambridge, and there 
spend my life in my studies and contemplations 
without looking back. I humbly pray your 
Lordship to pardon me for troubling you with 
my melancholy," etc. Life and Letters of 
Bacon, Vol. I, p. 290. 

Bacon grew pale and thin. His mother wrote to his 
brother Anthony that Francis "was musing on she knew 
not what." His mortal enemy, Coke, secured the of- 
fice of attorney-general, which Bacon had so long 
hoped for. 



In his essay Of Friendship Bacon says: 

''Men have their time, and die many times in 
desire of some things, which they principally 
take to heart: the bestowing of a child, the fin- 
ishing of a work or the like." 

And truly at this period Bacon suffered the keenest 

anguish of mind. 

This Essay Of Friendship is so fine that I venture a 

further quotation: 

If a man have a true friend, he may rest almost 
secure that the care of those things will continue 
after him; so that a man hath, as it were, two 
lives in his desires. A man hath a body, and that 
body is confined to a place ; but where friendship 
is, all offices of life are, as it were, granted to him 
and his deputy; for he may exercise them by his 
friend. How many things are there which a 
man cannot, with any face, or comeliness, say or 
do himself? A man can scarce allege his own 
merits with modesty, much less extol them : a 
man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate, or 
beg, and a number of the like: but all these 
things are graceful in a friend's mouth, which 
are blushing in a man's own. So again, a man's 
person hath many proper relations which he can- 
not put ofif. A man cannot speak to his son but 
as a father; to his wife but as a husband; to his 
enemy but upon terms : whereas a friend may 
speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth 
with the person : but to enumerate these things 
were endless; I have given the rule, where a man 
cannot fitly play his own part, if he have not a 
friend, he may quit the stage. 
I consider the Gesia Grayorum the most important 

Tract in Elizabethan literature. Viewed as the source 



of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, it ought to be wel- 
comed by all who have the Elizabethan poets well in 
mind. Throughout the three hundred and twenty-six 
years that separate us from the reign of Henry Prince 
of Purpoole, at Gray's Inn, where Bacon masked and 
reveled, Shakespeare's name and fame have grown with 
undiminished lustre; while the memory of his illustri- 
ous contemporary, Sir Francis Bacon, is revered and 
loved by posterity. Bacon was looked up to by those 
who loved letters, in his own day. His wisdom, rhet- 
oric, and oratory, were admired by the chief poets of 
his time, and as a prophet and lawgiver, he is forever 
identified with his country's fame. 

Those who love or devote themselves to letters usually 
scorn lucre, and Bacon was no exception to this un- 
worldliness. That worthy follower of Apollo, Thomas 
Campion, poet, musician and physician, in an Epigram 
(190) proves Bacon had: 

"a hand open as day for melting charity." 
and in this Epigram he shows that the King in honor- 
ing Bacon, in 1617, is more honored himself thereby. 
Campion has two Epigrams on Bacon. I will give the 
latter one first (Campion's works Ed. by Bull en, 1889.) 

190 Ad eundem. 
Patre, nee im merito quamvis amplissimus esset, 
Amplior, ut virtus, sic tibi crescit honor. 
Quantus ades, seu te spinosa volumina juris, 
Seu schloa, sua dulcis Musa (Bacone) vocat! 
Quam super ingenti tua re prudentia regnat, 
Et tota aethereo nectare lingua madens! 
Quam bene cum tacita nectis gravitate lepores! 



Quam semel admissis stat tuus almus amor! 
Hand stLipet aggesti mens in fulgore metalli ; 
Nunquam visa tibi est res peregrina, dare. 
O factum egregie, tua (Rex clarissime) tali 
Gracia cum splendet suspicienda viro! 

That is: 
Although you were most honorable and duly by 

your paternal descent 
More impressive, as your merit, so grows your 

honor, 
In all the fullness of thy presence, whether the 

obstruce tomes of the law. 
Whether the school, or Sweet Muse, O Bacon, 

summons thee! 
And with all thy tongue imbued with nectar of 

the upper world ! 
How well with silent gravity thou completest 

sallies of wit! 
How firm is thy sweet afifection for those once 

admitted to it! 
Nor is your mind dazed by the sheen of metal 

heaped up. 
Never has giv'uig appeared by you ^ foreign 

thing. 
O splendid act (most gracious King) when thy 

Grace 
Is resplendent as one to be looked up to by such 
a man!- 
Campion so well skilled in music, who could make 
marvelous sweet airs and songs, was moved by the elo- 
quent "tongue" of Bacon, "imbued with nectar of the 
upper world." 

Francis Meres [1598! was enamoured of Shakes- 
peare for the same gift, and calls him "mellifluous and 
honey-tongued Shakespeare," and he says "the Muses 



would speak with Shakespeare's tongue if they would 
speak English." 

Campion's other Epigram (189) on Bacon, ibid, p. 

Ad amp/iss. totius Angliae Cancellarium, Fr. 
Ba. 

Debet multa tibi veneranda [Bacon) poesis 
Illo de docto perlepidoque libro, 
Que manet inscriptus Veterum Sapientia; famae 
Et per ciincta tuae saecla manebit opus; 
Multaque te celebrent quanquam tia scripta, 

fatebor 
Ingenue, hoc laute tu mi hi, docte, sapis. 

That is: 

To the Right Honorable, the Chancellor of All 
England, Francis Bacon. 

Much owes to thee O Bacon, the worshipful art 

of poetry 
In connection with that book learned and very 

clever, 
Which remains inscribed Veterum Sapientia; 
And through all the ages it will endure a work 

of your fame; 
And although many writings of yours make you 

renowned I shall candidly confess 
In this {work) your wisdom to my mind appears 

with elegance and learning. 

Thomas Campion wrote the Hymns in Praise of 
Neptune for the Gesta Grayorum. The first Hymn 
was printed by Francis Davison in his Poetical Rhap- 
sody in 1602-1608 — Query: Was the following £/)/(^r«m 
sent to the members of Gray's Inn on that date? (ibid p. 

366). 



Ad Graios — 
Grali sive mag is juvat vetustum 
Nomen, purpulii, decus Britannum, 
Sic Astraea gregem heare vestrum, 
Sic Pallas velet; ut favere nugis 
Disjuncti socii velitis ipsi, 
Tetrae si neque sint, nee infacetae, 
Sed quales merito exhibere plausu 
Vosmet, ludere cum lubet, soletis. 
That is: 

To Grays — 

Ye Gray's, or if you better like the name of old 

Purpulii Britains ornament, 

So may Astraea be pleased to bless your flock, 

So Pallas may; to favor trifles 

As comrades divided, may it please yourselves 

If these (the trifles) be neither vile, nor witless, 

But such as deservedly you are wont to produce 
with praise 

Yourselves when you are wont to dally. 

I think these "trifles" were the Hymns for the 
Masque which was performed before "Astraea" 
[Queen Elizabeth] at Greenwich Palace. ''Purpulii' 
alias Portpoole is the name of the manor in which 
Gray's Inn was situated. This manor belonged to the 
family of the Gray's from Edward I until the reign of 
Henry VII. 

Campion's Hymns, one given at the beginning and 
the other at the close of the Masque, are here presented. 

Of Neptune's empire let us sing. 

At whose command the waves obey , 

To whom rivers tribute pay, 
Down the high mountain sliding'. 

To whom the scaly nation yields 



Homage for their chrystal fields, 
IV herein they dwell. 

And every Sea-god praise again, 
Yearly out of his wat'ry cell, 

To deck great Neptune's diadem. 

The Tritons dancing in a ring, 
Before his palace-gates, do make 
The waiters with their trumpets quake, 
Like the great thunder sounding. 

The Sea-nymphs chaunt their accents shrill, 
And the Syrens taught to kill 
With their sweet voice, 

Make every echoing voice reply 
Unto their gentle mourning noise. 
In praise of N eptune's empery. 

The second Hymn, which was sung at the departure 
of the Maskers into the Rock. 

Shadows before the shining Sun do vanish : 
Th' iron-forcing Adamant doth resign 
His virtues, where the Diamond doth shine. 

Pure Holiness doth all Inchantments blemish; 

And Councellors of false Principality 
Do fade in presence of true Majesty. 

Shepherds sometimes in Lion's-skitis were cloath'd/ 
But when the Royal Lion doth appear, 
JVhat wonder if the silly swains, for fear, 

Their bravery , and Princely pall have loath' d? 
The Lion's-skin, that grac'd our vanity , 
Falls down in presence of her Majesty. 

This last Hymn of Campion's seems to echo the lines 
in the Comedy of Errors (II. 2). 

"JVhen the sun shines let foolish knats make 
sport, but creep in crafinies 
When he hides his beams." 



The lines: 
"And Councillors of false Principality 
Do fade in presence of true Majesty." 

remind one of the speeches of the six Councillors of the 
Prince of Purpoole, which were composed by Bacon. 

In Foster's Ad. Regis of Gray's Inn, I find a Thomas 
Campion of London gent, was admitted April 27, 1586, 
and on August 10, 161 1, Edward Campion, son and heir 
of Thomas Campion of London, gent, was admitted. 

Henry Helmes, gent, of Rougham (Rufify), Norfolk, 
Master of the Revels Prince of Purpoole was admitted 
to Gray's Inn, June 17, 1594. 

Foster's Regist. Adm. to Gray's Inn. 

The Gesta Grayoruni tells us : 

"After many consultations had hereupon by 
the youths and others that were most forward 
herein, at length, about the 12th of December, 
with the consent and assistance of the Readers 
and Ancients, it was determined, that there 
should be elected a Prince of Purpoole, to gov- 
ern our state for the time; which was intended 
to be for the credit of Gray's Inn, and rather to 
be performed by witty inventions than charge- 
able expenses. 

"Whereupon, they presently made choice of 
one Mr. Henry Holmes, a Norfolk gentleman, 
who was thought to be accomplished with all 
good parts, fit for so great a dignity; and was 
also a very proper man of personage, and very 
active in dancing and revelling." 

It now remains f(3r me to give what account I can of 
this Prince of Sports who reigned and died in 1594. I 
have minutely gleaned what little I can, although dili- 



gent research has failed to disclose more than faint out- 
lines. However, to a student like myself, my trifling 
discovery relating to our Prince of Purpoole (who 
must have known Shakespeare) acquires some import- 
ance. 

From 1525 (perhaps earlier) the gentlemen of Gray's 
Inn had at Christmas time a Lord of Misrule. The 
Inns of Court men composed their own plays and acted 
in them. In 1529 one Simon Fish of Gray's Inn acted 
a part against Cardinal Wolsey which so displeased 
the great churchman, that Fish had to fly the country. 
In 1566 George Gascoigne's Jocasta was played by 
the students of Gray's Inn. In 1587-8 the poet Thomas 
Campion acted in a "Comedy" at Gray's Inn, and in 
the following month several members of the Inn com- 
posed The Misfortunes of Arthur, which they per- 
formed at Greenwich before the Queen. The authors 
of this Senecan Tragedy were Francis Bacon (who 
acted in the dumb showes), Christopher Yelverton, 
Nicholas Trott (who wrote the introduction) and five 
others. My own opinion is that Gray's Inn may in 
truth be called the very cradle and nursery of the Eng- 
lish Drama. 

So far as I know, Henry Helmes was the first Lord 
of Misrule to be called the Prince of Purpoole. In 
1617 when Bacon became Lord Chancellor the Second 
^'Prince of Purpoole" is mentioned. In Minshue's 
Guide to the Tongues (2nd Ed. 1625) among the names 
of the subscribers I find those of: "The Lord Baron 
Verulam, Sir Henry Helmes, one of the gentlemen 
Pensioners to his Majesty," and also one "Henry the 



Second, Prince of Graya and Purpoole, etc." No 
doubt the first edition of Minshue ( 1617) contained this 
list also. 

The following named gentlemen were admitted to 
Gray's Inn through the courtesy of our Henry Helmes 
on December 25, 1594: 

John Cooke, of Westminster, 

Edward Cooke, of Westminster, 

Philip Wentworth, of Cotton, Sufifolk, 

Anthony Fletcher, of Cockermouth, Cumber- 
land, 

Thomas Thomkins, of city of London, 

John Lillie,' of city of London, 

Thomas Smith, of Framlingham, Sufifolk, 
Admitted by Henry, Prince of Purpoole. 

Porters Regist. Adm. to Gray's Inn, page 87. 

The panegyric given in the Gesta Grayorum to our 
Prince of Purpoole gives us a glimpse of his virtues 
and courtly graces. Truly this Gray's Inn youth who 
could fight at Barriers with the Earls of Essex and 
Cumberland, and ^vin the prize which the Queen de- 
livered to him 'Svith her own hands," is worthy of our 
admiration. I have reason to believe that he was re- 
lated to the Yelvertons. Camden in his Britannia says : 

"Rougham the Seat of the Yelvertons, of whom 
William under Hen. 6, Christopher under Queen 
Elizabeth, and Henry under Charles I." 

I assume Henry Helmes was a youth of large means 
and that he contributed a considerable sum toward these 
Gray's Inn Sports and Revels. 

A branch of the Yelvertons family resided in Roug- 

^Qucnj—Uhe poet? 



ham, Norfolk, of whom William Yelverton, Esq., of 
Gray's Inn was the head. Two of his sons were mem- 
bers of Gray's Inn — William admitted October 17, 
1608, and Henry, second son, admitted February 2, 
161 1. Foster's Regist. Adm. Gray's Inn. 

The variant for Helmes is Holmes, and I find in 
Baynes' History of Eastern England (Vol. 1 1, page 55) 
the following connection between the Holmes and Yel- 
vertons : 

THE FAMILY OF THE YELVERTONS 
The first of this family that began to purchase 
and raise an estate at Yelverton in the Hundred 
of Henstead was William Yelverton, and Mabel 
his wife, who in 1398 purchased lands of Rich- 
ard de la Rokele, which till then belonged to 
Rokele's manor in Trowse. In 13 17 he pur- 
chased more lands of Roger de Walsham and 
Thomas de Langhale. About 1322 John de Yel- 
verton purchased the manor of Yelverton and 
advowson of Sir Oliver Wythe. In 1345 Robert 
de Yelverton, his son, held it of the said Oliver, 
and he of the Norfolk family. In 1391 John de 
Yelverton and wife had all the Yelverton estates. 
In 1444 William Yelverton, justice of the King's 
Bench, owned it, and in 1462 his commission was 
renewed, and again in 1471. In 1499 William 
Yelverton, jun., had the estate at his father's 
death. He died intestate in 15 18, and James 
Holmes administered in right of his wife Ann, 
sister and heir of the deceased. In 1551, Ann 
Holmes, their daughter, held Yelverton Hall, 
and left it to William Holmes, her son and heir, 
and it was afterwards sold to the family of the 
Rants, who flourished for some time in this part 
! of Norfolk. 



In 1589 Christopher Yelverton in his farewell ad- 
dress to the members of Gray's Inn "speaks of his an- 
cestors being of the House 200 years at the leaste." 

Douthivaite's Gray's Inn. 

Christopher Yelverton wrote the Epilogue to Gas- 
cogne's Jocasta and aided Bacon and others in The 
Misfortunes of Arthur. The Bacon's and Yelverton's 
married with the family of the Lords Gray of Ruthen. 

The Gesta Grayorum says: 

"For the present her Majesty graced every 
one; particularly, she thanked his Highness for 
the good performance of all that was done, and 
wished that their sports had continued longer, 
for the pleasure she took therein, which may 
well appear from her answer to the Courtiers, 
who danced a measure immediately after the 
mask was ended, saying, 'What! shall we have 
bread and cheese after a banquet?' 

"Her Majesty willed the Lord Chamberlain 
that the gentlemen should be invited on the next 
day, and that he should present them unto her. 
Which was done, and her Majesty gave them 
her hand to kiss, with most gracious words of 
commendations to them particularly, and in 
general of Gray's Inn, as an House she was much 
beholden unto, for that it did always study for 
some sorts to present unto her." 

"That same night there was fighting at bar- 
riers, the Earl of Essex and others challengers, 
and the Earl of Cumberland and his company 
defendants, into which number our Prince was 
taken, and behaved himself so valiantly and skil- 
fully herein that he had the prize adjudged due 



unto him, which it pleased her jMajesty to de- 
liver him with her own hands, telling him, 
'That it was not her gift; for if it had, it should 
have been better; but she gave it him as that 
prize which was due to his desert and good be- 
havior in those exercises, and that hereafter he 
should be remembered with a better reward from 
herself.' The price was a jewel set with seven- 
teen diamonds and four rubies, in value ac- 
counted worth an hundred marks." 

But Elizabeth's "better reward'' did not materialize 
as usual. 

Nine years later our charming Prince of Purpoole, 
Sir Henry Helmes of Norfolk, was knighted by King 
James I, July 23rd, 1603, at Whitehall. 

Nichols James I, Vol. I, p. 216. 

Our Prince of Purpoole on the ist of February rode 
through the main streets of London with one hundred 
of his Knights "very gallantly appointed," the most on 
"great horses" and the rest on very "choice geldings." 
In front of St. Paul's School the Prince was enter- 
tained with the following oration made by one of the 
boy scholars and delivered in Latin.' A translation is 
here given : 

"It may perhaps be out of place, most Re- 
now^ned Prince of Portpoole, before so great a 
majesty of yours to hold a discourse at so unsea- 
sonable a time, for I barely dare to hope that 
you, who bear so great a personage, and your 
retinue of courtiers, after great victories gained 
on land and sea, should halt for a boy's utter- 
ance right in a celebration of the most elaborate 
triumph. But through the condescension always 

iGesta (Trayonnii. p. 7.">. 



extolled in the greatest prince, may I be per- 
mitted to offer to your Highness passing by the 
loyalty of our Learning and this congratulation 
of mine, such as it is, after your return from 
Russia as famous and triumphant and spread 
through all the world to have it attested in this 
discourse of mine for all the nobles. For al- 
though my discourse escapes me suddenly and 
is dazed as it were before so great a majesty — 
still a more earnest congratulation and one more 
replete with dutiful affection for noble virtues, 
cannot certainly be advanced. 

Do you not see that the community itself, dis- 
lodged as it were from its abodes, is advancing 
to congratulate so great a prince? What do you 
think this entire assembly is entertaining in 
thought? On whose features and mien do you 
think the eyes of all are directed? What feelings 
of our friends do you reciprocate? What do 
we desire? What do we wish? What do we do? 
Is it not to express our wishes as much as con- 
gratulate you on your victories? What wonder, 
then, if a school, even our own, emulous of noble 
virtues, is eager to pay tribute to most renowned 
victories and triumphs? 

Continue, therefore, and continue with the best 
auspices, most famous Prince, return to your 
palace of Purtpoole. The Oracle of the Gray's, 
in which as by the prophetic voice of the Del- 
phian Apollo all differences are settled. 

As to invading the Spaniard, common foe 
of all princes, do you deliberate. How easily 
will your sword now dripping with the blood of 
the Tartans especially, if you should take the 
Templars, associated with you by ancient treaty, 
into the alliance of a new war (how easily) will 
your sword thrust back the drawn swords of all 



others and dash away their shields? Let the 
Spaniards burst with envy as the sides of Cedrus 
(an illusion to VirgiTs Ecoloques VII 26). 
Meanwhile indeed our Muses will both applaud 
your past victories and will entreat the ancient 
Pallas of the Grays, that she may put her own 
helmet on the now a second Agamemnon who 
has many Achilles and Ulysses as your compan- 
ions, and protect you with her shield and ban- 
ner, and after routing and defeating all your 
foes preserve you forever." 

There was in this Order of the Helmet an inten- 
tionally symbolic meaning, not yet fully solved. Al- 
though the ancient Pallas of the Gray's had put her 
own Helmet on the Prince and his Knights, the wisdom 
gained thereby did not make them eschew the charms 
of beauty, as the following words prove.' 

"As I am rightful Prince, and true Sovereign 
of the honourable Order of the Helmet, and by 
all those Ladies whom, in Knightly honour I 
love and serve, I will make the name of 
a Grayan Knight more dreadful to the Barbarian 
Tartars, than the Macedonian to the wearied 
Persians, the Romans to the dispersed Britain's, 
or the Castalian to the weakened Indians. Gen- 
tle Ladies, be now benign and gracious to your 
Knights, that never pleased themselves but 
when their service pleased you; that for your 
sakes shall undertake hard adventures, that will 
make your names and beauties most famous, 
even in foreign regions. Let your favour kindle 
the vigour of their spirits, wherewith they 
abound; for they are the men by whom your 
fame, your honour, your virtue, shall be for ever 
advanced, protected and admired." 

iGesta Grayonmi. p. 6S. 



We must bear in mind that the Ladies whom the 
Prince of Purpoole so honored, loved, and served, were 
the women of Shakespeare. 

The women of Elizabeth's Court inspired the Poet 
who immortalized them under the names of Portia, 
Juliet, Rosalind, Ophelia, Cordelia, Isabel, Silvia, etc. 
Not in Stratford, not in Silver or Monkwell Streets did 
he find his heroines, but at the Court, the Inns of Court, 
and in the Houses of the great men of his time. These 
fair women were clothed with the "seemly beauty" of 
the poet's own heart and brain. At Gray's Inn Shake- 
speare had seen how 

"His Highness called for the Master of the 
Revels, and willed him to pass the time in danc- 
ing: So his gentlemen — pensioners and attend- 
ants, very gallantly appointed, in thirty couples, 
danced the old measures, and their galliards, and 
other kinds of dances, revelling until it was very 
late; and so spent the rest of their performance 
in those exercises." 
In the Ladies Masque in Timon, Act I, See. 2, we 
are reminded of the Gesta Grayorum. 

''The Lords rise from Table, with much ador- 
ing of TIMON ; and, to show their loves, each 
singles out an Amazon, and all dance. Men with 
Women, a lofty Strain or two to the Hautboys, 
and cease/' 

Tim. You have done our pleasures much 
grace, fair ladies. 

Set a fair fashion on our entertainment. 
Which was not half so beautiful and kind: 
You have added worth unto't, and lustre. 
And entertain'd me with mine own device; 
I am to thank you for it. 



I Lady. My lord, you take us ever at the 
best. ... 

Tim. Ladies, there is an idle banquet Attends 
you : please you to dispose yourselves. 

All Lad. Most thankfully, my lord. 

The Prince of Purpoole advised the Knights of the 
Helmet to read the modern writers, and to visit the 
Theatre : 

''Item, every Knight of this Order shall en- 
deavour to add conference and exrience (sic) 
by reading; and therefore shall not only read 
and peruse Guizo, the French Academy, Galiat- 
to the Courtier, Plutarch, the Arcadia, and the 
Noeterical Writers, from time to time ; but also 
frequent the Theatre, and such like places of ex- 
perience; and resort to the better sort of ordi- 
naries for conference; whereby they may not 
only become accomplished with civil conver- 
sations, and able to govern a table with dis- 
course; but also sufficient, if need be, to make 
epigrams, emblems, and other devices, apper- 
taining to his Honour's learned revels.'" 

Guizo (Stufano) the first writer mentioned above 
published his La Civil Conversatione, etc., in 1574. In 
1586 the first English translation appeared under the 
following title: 

"The Civile Conversation divided into foure 
bookes, the first three translated out of French 
by G. Pettie, in the first is contained in generall 
the fruits that may be reaped by Conversation, 
and teaching how to know good companie from 
ill, in the second the manner of conversation, 
meete for all persons ... in the third is per- 
ticularlie set forth the orders to be observed in 

'Gesta Grayorum. p. 30. 



Conversation within doores ... in the fourth 
is set downe the forme of Civile Conversations, 
by an example of a Banquet, made in Cassale, 
betweene sixe Lords and foure Ladies, and now 
translated out of Italian into English by Barth. 
Young of the Middle Temple. 

Imprinted at London by Thomas East, 1586. 

It is said Shakespeare was familiar with this work. 

The French Academy by Primaiidaye, is referred to 
by Hunter in his Notes on Hamlet and ''The Merchant 
of Venice." This book was also translated into Eng- 
lish in 1586, as follows: 

The French Academic Fully Discoursed and 
finished in foure Bookes. Newly translated into 
English by T. B. 

Imnrinted at London, by Edmund BoUivant, 

1586. 

The third book, The Courtier, was translated into 
English in 1566 by Bacon's uncle, Sir Thomas Hoby. 

The Arcadia may have been Sir Philip Sidney's 
work, or by Sanazarus. 

The following compliment is then paid to the Queen 
by the Prince of Purpoole: 

"Lastly, all the Knights of this honourable 
Order, and the renowned Sovereign of the same, 
shall yield all homage, loyalty, unaffected admi- 
ration, and all humble service, of what name or 
condition soever, to the incomparable Empress 
of the Fortunate Island.'" 

The names of the succeeding gentlemen who acted 
in the Gesfa Gray ovum, were Francis Bacon's kinsmen, 

iQesta Groyonim. p. 41. 



or related by marriage to his family. Fitzwilliam^ 
Cooke, Kempe, Cecil, Drewry, Davison, Wentworth, 
Dandye, Moseley. 

William Cooke, the Captain of the Gentlemen Pen- 
siofiers, was Bacon's cousin, and married the daughter 
of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote in 1 594 ( See Bacon's 
letter to Sir Thomas Lucy, p. 60). This letter was 
written after Coke became Attorney General, 10 April 
1594. The writer believes that the youth, Francis 
Bacon, when visiting his kinsmen, the Cookes, at Harts- 
hill, in the Forest of Arden, met William Shakespeare 
somewhere in the forest. 

Rowe, his first biographer, tells us: 

"He had, by a misfortune common enough to 
young fellows, fallen into ill company, and 
amongst them some that made a frequent practice 
of deer-stealing, engaged him more than once in 
robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas 
Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this 
he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he 
thought, somewhat too severely; and, in order 
to revenge that ill usage, he made a ballad upon 
him. This, probably, the first essay of his poetry, 
is said to have been so very bitter, that it re- 
doubled the prosecution against him to that de- 
gree, that he was obliged to leave his business 
and family in Warwickshire, for some time, and 
shelter himself in London." 

Let Shakespeare lead us into the Forest of Arden,, 
where Bacon must have often wandered in his youth, 
and, like Jaques, mused in a "most humorous sadness."* 



AS YOU LIKE IT {ACT IF, See. II) 

Another part of the Forest. 

Enter Jacques and Lords, in the habit of For- 
esters. 

laq. Which is he that killed the deer? 
First Lord. Sir, it was I. 

Jaq. Let's present him to the duke, like a 
Roman conqueror; and it would do well 
to set the deer's horns upon his head, for 
a branch of victory: — Have you no song, 
forester, for this purpose? 
Second Lord. Yes, sir. 

Jaq. Sing it; 't is no matter how it be in tune, 
so it make noise enough. 

SONG. 

1. What shall he have that kill'd the deer? 

2. His leather skin, and horns to wear. 

Take thou no scorn, to wear the horn. 
It was a crest ere thou wast born. 

1. Thy father's father wore it; 

2. And thy father bore it; 

All. The horn, the horn, the lusty horn. 
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn. 

The Gesta Grayoriim does not mention Shakespeare's 
name, but there is perhaps a parody on it in a letter 
dated January 5, 1594-5 :' 

A Letter of Advertisement from Knights- 
bridge, to the Honourable Council: 

"I beseech your Honours to advertise his 
Highness, that in his Excellency's Canton of 
Knightsbridge there do haunt certain foreign- 
ers, that seize upon all passengers, taking from 
them by force their goods, under pretence, that, 

1 Gesta Grayorum, p. 63. 



being merchant strangers, and using traffic into 
his Highnesses territories of Clerkenwell, Isling- 
■ ton, and elsewhere, they have been robbed of 
their goods, spoiled of their wares ; whereby they 
were utterly undone : and that his Honour, of his 
good will, hath been pleased to grant them Let- 
ters of Reprisal, to recover their loss of them that 
come next to their hands: by colour whereof, 
they lay hold of all that pass by, without respect. 
Some of their names, as I understand, are, 
Johannes Shaghag, Robertus Untruss, James 
Rapax, alias Capax." 

Johannes Shagbag reminds one of ^'Johannes" and 
''Shakescene." Were he present on these Grand Nights, 
he must have enjoyed the reference to deer hunting "in 
other men's Parks." Although the Prince of Purpoole 
pardoned nearly every offence under the sun he ex- 
cepted deer stealing as follows : 

''Except, all such persons as shall hunt in the 
night, or pursue any bucks or does; or with 
painted faces, vizards, or other disguisings, in the 
day-time; or any such as do wrongfully and un- 
lawfully, without consent or leave given or 
granted, by day or night, break or enter into any 
park impailed, or other several close, incloseure, 
chace, or purliew, inclosed or compassed with 
wall, pale, grove, hedge, or bushes, used still 
and occupied for the keeping, breeding, or cher- 
ishing of young deer, prickets, or any other 
game, fit to be preserved and nourished; or such 
as do hunt, chase, or drive out any such deer, to 
the prejudice and decay of such game and pass- 
times within our dominions." 

"Except, all such persons as shall shoot in any 
hand gun, demyhag, or hag butt, either half- 



shot, or bullet, any fowl, bird, or beast; either at 
any deer, red or fallow, or any other thing or 
things, except it be a butt set, laid, or raised in 
some convenient place, fit for the same purpose." 
"Except, all and every artificer, crafts-man, 
labourer, householder, or servant, being a lay- 
man, which hath not lands to the yearly value 
of forty shillings; or any clerk, not admitted or 
advanced to the benefice of the value of ten 
pounds per annum, that with any grey-hound, 
mongrel, mastiff, spaniel, or other dogs, doth 
hunt in other men's parks, warrens, and coney- 
grees; or use any ferrets, hare-pipes, snarles, 
ginns, or other knacks or devises, to take or de- 
stroy does, hares, or coneys, or other gentlemen's 
game, contrary to the form and meaning of a 
statute in that case provided." 

The few known facts of Shakespeare's personal his- 
tory, have led his biographers to whole folios of con- 
jecture. He lived in umbra and is the greatest wonder, 
and the most mysterious "Figure" * in all literature. 
The great historical dramas, and delightful comedies 
came out anonymously and were the admiration of the 
most eminent poets of his own day, many of whom 
lauded the author with unstinted praise, but not under 
his own name. 

Edmund Spencer calls him Aetion — an Eagle — 1591. 
Thomas Nashe, fired with enthusiasm over his Henry 
the VI, in 1592 writes: 

"How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the 
terror of the French) to think that after he had 
lyne two hundred yeares in his Tombe, he should 

*"Tlus Figure tliat thou liore seest put." 



triumphe againe on the Stage, and have his bones 
newe embalmed with the teares of ten thousand 
Spectators at least, (at several times) w^ho in 
the Tragedian that represents his person, im- 
agine they behold him fresh bleeding." 

In this same ''Pierce Pennilesse," 1592, Nashe also 
praises Edward Alleyn: 

"Not Roscius nor Esope, those tragedians ad- 
mired before Christ was borne, could ever per- 
forme more in action than famous Ned Allen." 

This leads me to think Alleyn was the Tragedian who 
played Talbot, so to the life. "Pierce Penni/esse" may 
have been read by Robert Green before it was printed, 
and this high praise by Nashe added fuel to the bitter 
envy felt by Greene against the genius of Shakespeare, 
to whom he alludes in his "Grotes worth of Wit," 1592, 
under the name of Shakescene," i. e., a property man 
about the stage. Chettle is supposed to allude to Shake- 
speare in his " Kind e-He arts Dream" December, 1592, 
as follows: 

"Myselfe hath scene his demeanor no less 
civill than he excellent in the qualitie he pro- 
fesses; besides divers of worship have reported, 
his uprightness of dealing, which argues his hon- 
esty, and his facetious grace in writing, that ap- 
proves his Art." 

All this is written about an unnamed author. Chettle 
had not seen his writing, but "divers of worship" had 
"reported" all this and Chettle bowed to their authority. 
Chettle had only seen his "demeanor." 

It is because it is so rare, that we treasure every crumb 
of evidence that falls from the pens of Shakespeare's 



contemporaries. Whoever the unnamed author was, he 
was backed or supported by "divers of worship" as 
early as 1592. 

Therefore when the Comedy of Errors was per- 
formed at Gray's Inne, the author's name was not men- 
tioned. . His name first appeared on a play, Love's 
Labors Lost, in 1598. My opinion is that the Comedy 
of Errors was especially written for its production at 
Gray's Inn on December 28, 1594. 

Meres mentions it for the first time in 1598 in Pal- 
ladis Tamia, where he merely calls it ''Errors." It was 
first printed in the Folio of 1623. It will be remem- 
bered that the night on which the Comedy of Errors 
was played by "a Company of base and common fel- 
lowes" "was ever after called the night of Errors" by 
the members of Gray's Inn. 

In his Essay on Friendship, Bacon says: — "If a man 
hath not a friend he may quit the stage," and I firmly 
believe when the friendless young Shakespeare fled 
from Stratford to London, Bacon took him under his 
wing and sheltered him. Without this shelter he would 
have been classed as a vagabond or a masterless man. 
It is a coincidence that the first record we have of his 
connection with players is with the Lord Chamber- 
laines servants, on the very date on ivhich the Comedy 
of Errors was performed at Gray's Inn, and is as fol- 
lows : 

"To William Kempe, William Shakespeare 
and Richard Burbage, servants to the Lord 
Chamberleyne, upon the Councelles warrant 
dated at Whitehall xv. to Marcij, 1594, for twoe 
severall comedies or enterludes shewed by them 



before her Majestie in Christmas tyme laste 
paste, viz., upon St. Stephen's daye and Inno- 
centes daye, xiijli. vjs. viijd., and by waye of her 
Majesties rewarde, vjli. xiijs. iiijd., in all xxli." 

This was recorded in the accounts of the treasurer of 
the Chamber and printed by Hallwill Phillipps in the 
6th Ed. of his Outlines i, 109. 

The Comedy of Errors was performed at Gray's Inn 
on "Innocents Day at Night," December 28, 1 594. And 
from this date Shakespeare wore the livery of the Lord 
Chamberlain's men. 

Sir Henry Carey, the first Lord Hunsdon, Lord 
Chamberlain to the Queen, was Elizabeth's first cousin. 
It was by his courtesy the actors were permitted to play 
the ''Comedy of Errors" in Gray's Inn Hall. 

Two years after this, in 1596, it is thought Bacon 
wrote the following letter from Gray's Inn to the Earl 
of Shrewesbury: 

"It may please your good Lordship, 

I am sorry the joint masque from the four Inns 
of Court faileth; wherein I conceive there is no 
other ground of that event but impossibility. 
Nevertheless, because it faileth out that at this 
time Grey's Inn is well furnished of gallant 
young gentlemen, your lordship may be pleased 
to know, that rather than this occasion shall pass 
without some demonstration of afifection from 
the Inns of Court, there are a dozen gentlemen 
of Grey's Inn, that out of the honour which 
they bear to your Lordship and my Lord Cham- 
berlain to whom at their last masque they were 
so much bounden, will be ready to furnish a 
masque; wishing it were in their powers to per- 



form it according to their minds. And so for 
the present I humbly take my leave, resting 

Your Lordship's very humble and much boun- 
den, 

FR. BACON." 

I conjecture that "their last masque" referred to in 
this letter was a part of the Gesta Grayorum, and the 
letter shows Bacon's appreciation of the Lord Cham- 
berlain's courtesy in allowing his servants to perform 
a Comedy of Errors. 

Spedding comments on this letter as follows : 
"The next is the original found among the 
Burghley papers in the Landsdown collection, 
and was probably addressed to the first Lord 
Burghley though the address has disappeared 
with the flyleaf, and the docket does not supply 
it. If so, it must have been written before the 
autumn of 1598, but it seems impossible to de- 
termine on what occasion. I do not remember 
to have met with any report of a projected 
masque by the four Inns of Court united. But 
I find that on the 15th of October, 1596, Bacon 
wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury from Grey's 
Inn, "to borrow a horse and armour for some 
public shew"; and this may possibly have refer- ' 
ence to the same. Occasions of the kind oc- 
curred frequently, and though small things some- 
times serve to illustrate things of importance, it 
is not very likely that anything would be gained ' 
by ascertaining the particulars of the "demon- 
stration of affection" here proposed. 

'Letters and Life of Bacon' Vol II, p. 37.0." 

"Small things" do indeed "sometimes serve to illus- 
trate things of importance." Were it not for the Gesta 

xli 



Grayorurn, which was sold for a shilling on its publi- 
cation in 1688, we would never have known that Shake- 
speare's Comedy of Errors was "played by the players" 
in Gray's Inn, December 28, 1594. 

It may be that some day we will discover where 
Canning, the printer of the Gesta Grayonini, found the 
original manuscript. 

My esteeemd friend, the late Bertram Dobell, Poet 
and Bibliographer, wrote me, March 30, 191 1 : 

"Some day, I feel sure, — or tolerably sure — a 
copy of the Sonnets in the author's handwriting 
will turn up * * * I have myself discov- 
ered so many remarkable things in manuscripts 
that I don't even despair of crowning my dis- 
coveries by finding this."* 

In writing about Shakespeare, conjecture is bound 
to force itself upon the writer; like Banquo's ghost, it 
will not down. Therefore if Bacon became an en- 
couraging friend to the youth from Stratford, we can 
readily understand Shakespeare's rapid advancement, 

^ The mention of Bertram Dobell's name recalls to mind these 
lines from one of his sonnets in A Lover s Moods sent me by their 
author in March, 1914: 

"To prove myself true poet and true lover 
Has been my life's devoutly cherished aim, 
But all in vain love's secret to discover 

I sought, nor dared the laurel wreath to claim : 
Now, let the world deny it, or bestow 

On me the guerdon of a poet's fame, 
I care not, for at last love's power I know. 
And poet am since lover I became." 
His son, Percy John Dobell in his tender Memoir of his father, 
states that "the proof sheets of this book were corrected and returned, 
but my father did not live to see a completed copy." The poet 
passed into the silent land December 14, 19 15. 

xlii 



which caused Greene to call him an "upstart crow." 
Bacon's influence was sufficient to place Shakespeare 
among the Lord Chamberlain's men, who were the 
leading company and allowed to play before the Queen 
and at Court. The fact is that Shakespeare's plays were 
written exclusively for the Court, and his plays were 
controlled entirely by the Lord Chamberlain and his 
deputy, Edmund Tilney, the Master of the Revels. Sir 
George Buc had acted as Tilney's deputy for sometime 
before the latter's death. Chalmers in his Supple- 
mental Apology, p. 200, says: 

"The following plays licensed by Sir George 
Bucke, as appeared by the Stationers Registers: 
26 November (1607) Mr. William Shakspere 
his Historic of Kinge Leare; as it was played 
before the King's Majestic at Whitehall upon St. 
Stephens night at Christmas last, by his Majes- 
ties Servants, playing usually at the Globe on the 
Bankside. 

And 20 May 1607-8, "The Booke of Pericles 
Prynce of Tyre 

3 June, Anthony and Cleopatra 

6 Oct. 1621, The Tragedie of Othello." 

Sir George Buc was a friend of Camden's, who in 
his Britannia says: 

"That person of excellent learning. Sir George 
Buc Knight, Master of the Revels, who (for I 
love to own my Benefactor's) has remarked 
many things in our Histories and courteously 
communicated his observations." 

Buc was very learned and a member of the Middle 
Temple. The Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney, 



in 1610, was succeeded by Sir George Buc, who was 
his nephew, and when Buc resigned in 1622, Sir Henry 
Herbert (a Kinsman of the two incomparable brothers 
to whom the first Folio was dedicated in 1623) became 
the Master of the Revels and retained the office for 
fifty years. All the noblemen and gentlemen named in 
connection with Shakespeare's plays w^re friends 
(some of them Kinsmen) to Francis Bacon. 

The Tilney's, Buc's, and Bacon's, married into the 
Buer family. Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery 
and Pembroke, to whom jointly with his brother, the 
first F0//0 was dedicated, married Bacon's cousin, Susan 
Vere, daughter of the 17th Earl of Oxford, in 1605. 
This gentlewoman's mother was Bacon's first cousin, 
Anne Cecil, the daughter of his Aunt Mildred, wife of 
William Cecil, the great Lord Burleigh, who was 
Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer for forty years. 

It does not seem to me rash to say that I believe the 
Shakespeare dramas were guarded by three of the great- 
est families in England — the Stanley's, the Carey's, and 
the Herbert's. Henry Carey, first Lord Hunsdon, Lord 
Chamberlain, and his son George, second Lord Huns- 
don, also Lord Chamberlain, first controlled them. 
Bacon's first cousin. Sir Edward Hoby, married Mar- 
gret, daughter of Henry Carey, first Lord Hunsdon. 
Sir Edward Hoby was the son of Bacon's Aunt Eliza- 
beth, who on the death of her first husband. Sir Thomas 
Hoby, married John Lord Russell, son of the Earl of 
Bedford. 

I found in a MS. copy of the Bisham Register this 
entry : 



''The Right Honorable Lord John Russell and 
Renowned Lady Elizabeth Hobbey, 23 Dec. 
1574" were married. 

I have reason to believe that Thomas Russell, Esq., 
whom Shakespeare makes one of the overseers to his 
will, was related to John Lord Russell, the second 
husband of Bacon's Aunt Elizabeth. Lady Russell, 
whom the poet Lodge called the "English Sapho" when 
in 1596 he dedicated to her A Margarite of America, 
like all Sir Anthony Cook's daughters, was greatly 
accomplished in letters. She lived in a fine residence 
in the Blackfriars near Shakespeare's property. Queen 
Elizabeth was there present on the marriage of her 
daughter Anne to Lord Herbert, the Earl of Worces- 
ter's son, in 1600. 

In 1593 Lodge wrote his Margarite of America. 

The Hoby family were his intimate friends. Wood 
says, "Lodge was a servitor or scholar under the learned 
Mr. Edward Hobye of Trinity College." He was at 
College with the sons of Lord Hunsdon also, by whom 
he was esteemed. His sweetness of temper may be 
judged when Shakespeare appropriated the plot of his 
Rosalynde for As You Like It. Lodge never railed 
against it or envied him as his associate Greene did. In 
1589 Lodge and Greene had worked together on a play. 

If, as I am convinced, Bacon shielded Shakespeare, 
Lodge, who was on the closest terms of friendship with 
Bacon's relations, the Hobey's, the Russell's, the Stan- 
ley's, and the Carey's, there is good reason why he did 
not complain when Shakespeare purloined his plot of 
Rosalynde entire. Although he did not publicly ac- 

xlv 



cuse Shakespeare for using his plot, he omits his name 
when (in his Wit's Miserie and the World's Madness) 
he writes of the divine wits and poets of his day, as 
follows : 

"Lilly, the famous for facility in discourse; 
Spencer, best read in ancient poetry; Daniel, 
choice in word and invention; Draiton, diligent 
and formall; Th. Nash, true English; Aretine." 

Perhaps Lodge took some little pleasure in alluding 
to Shakespeare's voice in his Wit's Miserie and the 
World's Madnesse, T596, where he refers to Hamlet as 
follows : "The visard of ye ghost which cried so miser- 
ably at ye Theator, like an aister wife, 'Hamlet, re- 
venge' ". 

Nicholas Rowe, who wrote the first Life of Shake- 
speare, tells us, although he searched diligently to as- 
certain what were the characters Shakespeare acted 
on the stage, he could only learn that he had ''acted the 
ghost in his own Hamlet." We know Shakespeare was 
not a great actor like Richard Burbage or Edward 
Alleyn. Surely Lodge was one of the best informed 
of Shakespeare's contemporaries and his authority on 
the "visard of ye ghost" in Hamlet, crying "so miser- 
ably at the Theator" may be regarded as a first hand 
criticism of Shakespeare's acting, it seems to me. 

During the Gesta Grayorum time, William Stanley, 
6th Earl of Derby, married, on Jan. 26, 1594, Francis 
Bacon's cousin, daughter of the 17th Earl of Oxford. 

This Earl of Derby is said to have written plays and 
he, like other nobles of his rank, had his own company 
of players. To him the poet Thomas Lodge dedicated 
''A Fig for Momus" as follows : 



To the Right Honorable 

and thrice renowmed Lord, William 

Earle of Darbie '. 

T. L. his most humble and denoted seruant, 

uusheth all health and happines. 

My honoured good Lord, hauing resolued 
with my selfe to publish certaine my poems, and 
knowing them subject to much preiudice, except 
they were graced with some noble and worthie 
patron: I haue followed the example of 
Metabo, king of the Volschi, who desirous to de- 
liuer his onelie daughter from all perill and 
danger, consecrated and dedicated hir to the 
sister of the sunne. So I no lesse careful! of 
my labors, then the king of his Camilla, with 
deliberate and aduised iudgement, wholy denote 
and offer vp my poems to your fauour and pro- 
tection: who being the true Maecenas of the 
Muses, and iudiciall in their exercises, are of 
power to relieue my weaknes, by your worthines, 
and to priuiledge me from enuie, though she 
were prest to deuoure me: If midst your gen- 
eral! fauour to all desert, your honour vouchsafe 
this particular benefite to my Industrie, no day, 
or time, (as Tully counsaileth) shall define the 
memorie of your benefits, but as your noble 
father in mine infancie, with his owne hands in- 
corporated me into your house, so in this my 
retired age and studie, my labour, lines, and 
whole life, shall be imployed to doe your honour 
and seruice. 

Your Lordships most boun- 
den in all humilitie, 

THOMAS LODGE. 
Hunterian Club, Volume C. VRRC. 

xlvii 



The following is Lodge's dedication to Bacon's Aunt 
Lady Russell: 

To the noble, learned and vertuous ladie, the 
Ladie Russell, T. L. wisheth affluence on earth 
and felicitie in heaven. 

MADAM, your deep and considerate judge- 
ment, your admired honor and happy readings, 
have drawne me to present this labor of mine 
to your gracious hands and favorable patronage : 
wherein, though you shall find nothing to ad- 
mire, yet doubt I not but you may meet many 
things that deserve cherishing. Touching the 
subject, though of it selfe it seeme historicall, 
yet if it please you like our English Sapho to 
look into that which I have slenderly written, I 
doubt not but that your memory shal acquaint 
you with my diligence, and my diligence may de- 
serve your applause. Touching the place where 
I wrote this, it was in those straits christned by 
Magelan; in which place to the southward many 
wonderous isles, many strange fishes, many mon- 
strous Patagones withdrew my sense; briefly, 
many bitter and extreme frosts at midsummer 
continually clothe and clad the discomfortable 
mountains; so that as there was great wonder in 
the place wherein I writ this, so likewise might 
it be marvelled, that in such scantie fare, such 
causes of feare, so mightie discouragements, and 
many crosses, I should deserve or eternize any 
thing. Yet what I have done (good Madame), 
judge and hope this felicite from my pen, that 
whilst the memorie thereof shal live in any age, 
your charitie, learning, nobilitie and vertues, 
shall be eternized. Oppian, writing to Theo- 
dosius, was as famous by the person to whome 
hee consecrated his study, as fortunate in his 

, xlviii 



labours, which as yet are not mastered by ob- 
livion; so hope I (Madame), on the wing of 
your sacred name to be borne to the temple of 
eternitie, where, though envie barke at me, the 
Muses shall cherish, love, and happie me. Thus 
hoping your ladiship will supply my boldnesse 
with your bountie and afifabilitie, I humbly kisse 
your most delicate handes, shutting up my Eng- 
lish duety under an Italian copie of humanitie 
and curtesie. From my house, this 4. of Maie, 
1596. 

Your honors in all zeale, 

T. LODGE. 

This was edited by James O. Halliwell, London, 
1859, w^th Title page as follows: 

A MARGARITE OF AMERICA. By T. 
LODGE. Printed for John Busbie, and are to 
be sold in S. Dunstons church-yard in Fleet- 
street, at the little shop next Cliffords Inne. 1596. 

In April, 1593, William Shakespeare's name for the 
first time appeared in print, appended to a dedication 
to what the poet called "the first heir of my invention," 
or his first poem, Venus and Adonis. This dedication 
was addressed to Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of 
Southampton, who had just become of age, and was a 
member of Gray's Inn. 

Bacon's uncle. Lord Burghley, had been his guardian 
and had sent him to Cambridge to be educated in 1585. 
If the child is father to the man, this young lord must 
have been a born cynic, for at the age of thirteen he 
wrote a composition in Latin, which he sent to Burgh- 
ley, entitled, "All men are moved to the pursuit of vir- 
tue by the hope of reward." (D. A^. B.) From what I 

xil 



know of his character I should say he was rather over- 
estimated by the writers of that age and of a sullen and 
morose disposition. Bacon may have brought Shake- 
speare in touch with this young Earl thinking to form 
his taste for the best in literature, for Southampton was 
infatuated with plays, and as Shakespeare had not 
deigned to put his name in print on a play, he may have 
hoped to win him from them to other studies. The title 
page of Venus and Adonis was without the poet's name, 
but it bore the following Latin Motto from Ovid: 

"Villa mlretur vidgiis; mlhl flavus Apollo 
Pociila Castalla plena mlnlstret aqua" 
or: 

"Let common folk marvel at cheap things. Let 
blonde Apollo Serve me cups brimming ivlth 
Castallan lymph." 
I see in these lines a gently veiled admonition to the 
young Earl, to flee from and avoid common plays, 
which the crowd marvelled at and applauded. Shake- 
speare no longer spoke from "under mimic shade" and 
for the time being had cast ofi his "despised weed" or 
dress of an actor and dramatist. He acknowledged his 
brain child Venus and Adonis as his "heir," as if his 
poems were paramount in his esteem. His second poem, 
Lucrece, came out in May, 1594, with William Shake- 
speare's name again appended to a dedication to the 
same Earl of Southampton. 

In T i;93 "the Societies of Gray's Inn and the Inner 
Temple'' boh held their Autumn Pensions in St. Al- 
bans. No readings wxre held in Gray's Inn in 1593, 
and during this year and 1594 Francis Bacon was in- 
disposed and attended very few of the Pensions. 



During all this leisure time he could have brought 
his young friend, the Earl of Southampton, and Shake- 
speare in touch. Without the authority of Bishop Whit- 
gift, who had been Bacon's tutor at Cambridge, Venus 
and Adonis and Ijiicrece could not have been published. 

Sir Thomas Heneage, a member of Gray's Inn and 
Bacon's good friend, was Vice Chamberlain to the 
Queen. He married the young Earl of Southampton's 
mother this very month, on 2nd of May, 1594. Sir 
Thomas Heneage was made Vice Chamberlain 7th 
September, 1587.^ He was a genial gentleman with 
a lovable disposition and had much influence at Court 
and among the stage poets. In fact he had control 
over plays and players in the absence of the Lord 
Chamberlain. If Bacon was Shakespeare's friend, his 
influence would help in making Sir Thomas Heneage 
a well-wisher to the poet, but nothing has come down 
to us to enlighten us on this point. 

Prior to giving the Masque at Greenwich before the 
Queen, the following letter was sent to Sir Thomas 
Heneage: 

Henry Prince of Purpoole to the Right Hon- 
ourable Sir Thomas Heneage. 
"Most Honourable Knight, 
"I have now accomplished a most tedious and 
hazardous journey, though very honourable, 
into Russia; and returning within the view of 
the Court of your renowned Queen, my gracious 
Sovereign, to whom I acknowledge homage and 
service, I thought good, in passing by, to kiss her 
sacred hands, as a tender of the zeal and duty I 
owe unto her Majesty; but, in making the ofifer, 

iStowe's Chronicle, p. 367. 

li 



I found my desire was greater than the ability 
of my body ; which, by length of my journey, and 
my sickness at sea, is so weakened, as it were very 
dangerous for me to adventure it. Therefore, 
most honourable friend, let me intreat you to 
make my humble excuse to her Majesty for this 
present: and to certifie her Highness, that I do 
hope, by the assistance of the Divine Providence, 
to recover my former strength about Shrovetide; 
at which time I intend to repair to her Majesty's 
Court (if it may stand with her gracious pleas- 
ure) to ofifer my service, and relate the success 
of my journey. And so praying your Honour 
to return me her Majesty's answer, I wish you all 
honour and happiness. 

"Dated from ship-board, at our Ark of Vanity, 
the ist of February 1594." 

Those who know Bacon's style will recognize it in 
this epistle. In a letter of his to the Queen he dated it 
from ''My Tub. of Vanity." 

That Southampton did not appreciate the mind of 
Shakespeare is apparent. In 1598 the Earl of South- 
ampton accompanied Bacon's cousin, Sir Robert Cecil, 
to France. He was at this period in love with the 
Queen's maid of honor, Elizabeth Vernon, who had 
retired from Court and was domiciled for the time be- 
ing at Essex house. That prince of letter writers, John 
Chamberlain, wrote to Carleton, 30th August, 1598: 

"It is bruted under hand, that he [South- 
ampton] was latelie here foure dayes in greate 
secrete of purpos to marry her, and effected it 
accordingly." 

Chamberlain Letters, Camden Soc, p. 18. 
Hi 



Three months later, 8th November 1598, the same to 
the same, writes : 

"The new Countess of Southampton is brought 
a bed of a daughter.'" 
and twenty-two days later the same writer to the same: 

"The Earl of Southampton is come home, and 
for his welcome committee to the Fleet, but I 
hear he is already upon his delivery." 

Elizabeth Vernon was first cousin to the Queen's 
favorite, Robert, Earl of Essex, and distantly related 
to Sir Thomas Lucy's wife. 

The following letter from the Countess of South- 
ampton to her husband from "Chartly, 8th July," is 
of Shakespearian interest: 

"Al the nues I can send you that I thinke wil 
make you mery is that I reade in a letter from 
London that Sir John Falstaf is by his Mrs. 
Dame Pintpot, made father of a godly milers 
thumb, a boye all heade and veri litel body; but 
this is a secrit."" 

This leads me to think there was among their friends 
some very portly gentleman whom they nicknamed Sir 
John FalstafiF, or that the gentleman bore in his coat 
of Arms what is called in Heraldry a Chalbot known 
by the name of Miller's thumb. 

This broad head fish was sometimes called a GulL 
In Hen. V. 11.2 we find: 

Tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then 
goes to the wars. 

ilbid, p. 27. 

2I-Iist. MSS. Comm., p. 148. 

liii 



The Countess of Southampton's reference was to 
I Hen. I V. 1 1., where the Hostess of the Boars Head, 
convulsed with mirth, exclaims: 

O rare! he doth it as like one of those harlotry 
players as ever I see. 

and Falstaf retorts: 

Peace, good pint-pot; peace good tickle brain. 

I believe Love's Labours Lost was written to cele- 
brate the marriage of the Earl of Southampton, who 
hurried back from France to marry the lady whom he 
had placed in a delicate condition. It will be remem- 
bered that the Earl of Southampton accompanied 
Bacon's cousin Robert Cecil, Elizabeth's secretary, to 
Paris at this very time, and that the politics of France 
would be fresh in his mind. And a year after South- 
ampton's release from the Tower in 1604 this comedy 
of Love's Labours Lost was performed before Queen 
Anne at Southampton's own house in the Strand, indi- 
cating that the Earl and his wife had a special liking 
for this play, which I conjecture was written to cele- 
brate their marriage. The writer's or gossip's of the 
Court tell us Southampton delighted in the drama, and 
with Essex, in 1598, attended plays daily. 

I repeat I believe the Comedy of Errors was pur- 
posely designed as a portion of the "Law Sports" at 
Gray's Inn, and I partly base my belief on the follow- 
ing reasons: 

Lord Campbell said Shakespeare was familiar "with 
some of the most abstruce proceedings in English juris- 
prudence." If Bacon was interested in Shakespeare 



could he not have taught him all this? I really think 
Robert Greene in his slur on "Johannes Factotum" 
aimed a double blow and struck at the name and fame 
of Bacon as well as at "Shake-scene." 

In the Comedy of Errors, Act II, Sc. 2, we have 
the dialogue between Antipholus and his man Dromio: 

Dro. S. There' no time for a man to recover 

his hair, that grows bald by nature. 
Ant. S. ^l2iy\\Qnot^o\ihY fine and recovery? 
Dro. S. Yes, to pay a fine for a periwig, and 
recover the lost hair of another man. 
In Act IV , Sc. 2, Adriana asks Dromio of Syracuse : 
"Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well?" 

and Dromio replies: 

"No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell : 

A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, 

One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel; 

A fiend, a fairy, pitless and rough; 

A wolf, nay worse, a fellow all in bufif; 

A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that 
countermands 

The passages and alleys, creeks and narrow 
lands: 

A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry- 
foot wtII ; 

One that before the judgment carries poor souls 
to hell." 

Adr. Why, man, what is the matter? 

Dro S. I do not know the matter; he is 'rested 
on the case. 

Adr. What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose 
suit. 

Dro. S. I know not at whose suit he is ar- 
rested, well. 



But he's 'in a suit of buff which' rested 
him, that can I tell * * * 
Adr. * * * This I wonder at: 

That he, unknown to me, should be in 

debt. 
Tell me, was he arrested on a bond? 
Dro. S. Not on a bond, but on a stronger 
thing: 
A chain, a chain! 

Now who could relish this law business better than 
the Inns of Court men? Many of whom were often in 
debt and no doubt felt a fellow feeling when Dromeo 
in his malediction called the Sergeant "devil," "fiend," 
and "wolf," who "carries poor souls to hell." This of- 
ficer was so dreaded and abhorred that even the dying 
Hamlet utters the pathetic words: 

"This fell Sergeant, death, is strict in his arrest." 

Anthony Bacon, who returned to England in 1592, 
after a twelve years' residence in France, must have 
enjoyed Act III, Sc. 2, when one of the Dromios is 
asked in what part of Luce he could find France, re- 
plies : 

". . .In her forehead; 
Armed and reverted, making war against her 
hair (Heir)." 

This was a political hit at King Henry of Navarre, 
who was Anthony Bacon's friend. The allusion to the 
civil war in France could only be appreciated by those 
acquainted with the history and troubles in France at 
that period. In 1589 Henry of Navarre became the 
legitimate heir to the throne, but he had to fight his 

Ivi 



way through blood to achieve it, and did not succeed in 
establishing his right until 1593-4. Anthony Bacon 
possessed more political secrets than any man of his 
time, outside of his friend, Walsingham, and his kins- 
men, the CeciTs. He had spent his life, his fortune 
(even his jewels) in the service of his country. In re- 
turn he only received from those from whom he ex- 
pected most (the Queen and Burleigh) — ingratitude 
and neglect. 

The reader may be familiar with the ''Chain" allu- 
sions in the Comedy of Errors. 

There is so much made of the '^chain" which runs 
through Acts II, III, IV and V of the Comedy of Er- 
rors, that my researches lead me to believe that in them 
a parody is intended, and that it points to that learned 
Judge, Sir Roger Manwood, a member of the Inner 
Temple and a friend of Lord Coke's. 

In 1 56 1 this gentleman had taken part in the Christ- 
mas revels in the Masque of Palaphilos at the Middle 
Temple. Manwood's character was not calculated to 
win him the friendship of men of honor. Francis 
Davison no doubt disliked him, for he was one of those 
who sat on the commission in 1587, which found Secre- 
tary Davison "guilty of misprison and contempt." "In 
1 59 1 he was detected in the sale of one of the offices in 
his gift and sharply censured by the Queen." . . . 
This was but one of several misfeasances of various de- 
grees of gravity with which Manwood was charged." 
According to Manningham's Diary, "he even stooped 
to appropriate a gold chain which a goldsmith had 
placed in his hands for inspection, and on the privy 

Ivii 



council interventing by writ at the suit of the gold- 
smith, returned the scornful answer: 

"Malas causas habentes semper fugiunt ad 
potentes. Ubi non valet Veritas praevalet auctor- 
itas. Currat, lex vivet Rex, and so fare you well 
my Lords." (D. N. B.) 

That is: 

"Those men who have a poor case (not strong 
legally) always flee to men of honor. Where 
truth is not strong, prestage carries the day. 
Good-bye law, long live the King!" 

Manningham tells the story thus: 

"Lord Chief Baron Manwood, understanding 
that his Sonne had sold his chayne to a gold- 
smith, sent for the goldsmith, willed him to bring 
the chayne, enquired where he bought it. He 
told, m his house. The Baron desired to see it, 
and put it in his pocket, telling him it was not 
lawfully bought. The goldsmith sued the Lord, 
and, fearing the issue would prove against him, 
obtained the Counsell's letters to the Lord who 
answered" in the above Latin, "but he was 
Comitt," says Manningham. 

In 1592 Manwood was arraigned before the Privy 
Council. Bacon's dearest foe, Coke, was a great friend 
of Manwood's. 

Sir Julius Caesar, who for his third wife, married 
Bacon's niece, was at this time Treasurer of the Inner 
Temple. 

Attorney General Coke had Chambers in the Inner 
Temple and was one of its most distinguished members. 
The Gesta Grayorum tells us: 

Iviii 



"The Lord Ambassador and his train thought 
that they were not so kindly entertained as was 
before expected, and thereupon would not stay 
any longer at that time, but, in a sort discontented 
and displeased." 

It is well known Sir Edward Coke, neither favored 
poetry nor was ever inspired by it. He bragged that he 
had succeeded neither by ''pen nor purse" and no doubt 
scorned the Gary's Inn law sports and revels, and the 
satire in the comedy against his colleague, Manwood. 
As for plays and players Coke had the utmost con- 
tempt. In a ''Speech and Charge with the Discoveries 
of the Abuses and Corruption of Officers" which he 
made at Norwich, he said : ;"' 

"The abuse of stage players, wherewith I find 
the countrey much troubled, may easily be re- 
formed. They having no commission to play in 
any place without leave; and therefore, if by 
your willingness they be not entertained you may 
soone be rid of them." {Printed 1607.) 

In 1599 on the ninth day of his Morrice Will Kempe 
danced into Norwich where he tells us in his Nine Days 
Wonder: 

"Master Roger Wiler the Maior, and sundry 
other of his worshipful Brethren sent for me" 
and "they not onlly very courteously offered to 
beare mine owne charges and my followers, but 
... the Mayor, and many of the Aldermen 
oftentimes besides invited us privately to theyr 
several houses." 
Lord Coke in his speech may have wanted to ad- 
monish the Mayor and his Aldermen for their too 
kindly reception of a player. 

Hx 



I have reason to believe that the Actor Kempe was a 
member of the family of the Norwich Kempes, and that 
the Mayor knowing this, honored him the more for that 
reason. 

The younger sons of gentlemen sometimes became 
players. Nathaniel Field, brother of Bacon's friend 
Bishop Theophilus Field, was an actor and a play- 
writer, and is said to have been a Sharer in the Globe 
Theatre. 

Soon after the Globe was built Kempe's one share 
in it was divided equally between Heminge, and two 
others. 

We learn through Dr. C. W. Wallace that in 1599 
Kempe transferred his share in the Globe to a name- 
less outside party, and that this party "immediately 
granted it to Shakespeare, Heminge, Phillips, and 
Pope." 

Kempe was the leader of a Company of Players who 
visited the Court of Denmark in 1586. He could have 
described Elsinore to Shakespeare on his return. The 
Bacon's were related to the Kempe's of Norwich, some 
of whom were members of Gray's Inn. It is my belief 
William Kempe, under the guise of an actor, visited 
Foreign Courts to glean intelligence for the Court of 
Elizabeth, and I also believe that the first draft of 
Shakespeare's Hamlet appeared in 1589. Nashe alludes 
to "whole hamlets" in 1589, and to "English Seneca," 
which seems to point at the Inns of Court, especially 
to Gray's Inn, where The Misfortunes of Arthur, a 
Senecan tragedv, was composed by the members in 

1587-8. 



It is said that whole passages of this play were taken 
bodily from Seneca. The Inns of Court men were de- 
voted to Senecan tragedies. Jasper Heywood, the uncle 
of the poet Dr. John Donne, was the first who trans- 
lated three of them into English, and the poet Thomas 
Lodge has given us another English translation. 

Three years after Kempe's visit to the Court of Den- 
mark, that poet courtier and altogether charming gen- 
tleman, Sir Edward Dyer, was sent on a diplomatic 
mission to Denmark in 1589. To this gentleman Sir 
Philip Sidney willed part of his books in 1586. To 
Francis Bacon's kinsman. Sir Henry Goodere (who 
made Drayton a poet), the noble Sidney bequeathed a 
ring and made him one of the overseers of his will. 

It may be inferred that the Author of Hamlet could 
have imbibed from the poet Dyer, and the Actor 
Kempe, the very atmosphere of Elsinore. 

In a letter from John Chamberlain to his friend 
Dudley Carlton, dated June 28, 1599, he writes: 

"The Queen is given to understand that he 
(Essex) has given Essex house to Antonie Bacon, 
wherewith she is nothing pleased ; but as far as I 
heare it is but in lieu of 2000 1. he meant to be- 
stow upon him, with a clause of redemption for 
that sum by a day." Chamberlain's Letters. 
Camb. Society. 

I agree with Chamberlain that this act of Essex (if 
true) was in lieu of money owed to Anthony Bacon, for 
long and faithful services rendered to the Earl. I think 
Essex died before he could compensate Anthony, and 
that he was deeply in debt to his faithful friend, who 
did not long survive him. 



On 27th May, 1601, Chamberlain again writes to 
Carleton: 

"Antony Bacon died not long since; but so far 
in debt, that I think his brother is little the bet- 
ter by him." Ibid. 

The Earl of Essex was beheaded February 25th, 
1 601, and the blow was too severe for the friend of his 
bosom, Anthony Bacon, whose health had been very 
frail for years. Less than three months after the death 
of Essex, Anthony followed him to the grave, and was 
buried on the 17th of May, 1601, ten days before the 
date of Chamberlain's letter. 

Anthony attended the Church of St. Olave, Hart 
Street, one of the aristocratic churches in London. It 
was near to Essex house, and the Earl's children were 
baptized by its minister. 

The Bacon tomb was under the altar of this church, 
and here Anthony set up his everlasting rest. A few 
days later one of his men (a French man) was interred 
in the same vault. I made this discovery several years 
ago, but have unfortunately mislaid my notes so that I 
cannot give the page and reference verbatim. 

It will interest my readers to know that a fifteen min- 
utes' walk from this church of St. Olave, Hart Street, 
would bring one to Montjoy's the Tiremaker's, at the 
corner of Silver and Monkwell Streets, where Shakes- 
peare sojourned so many years, and played the good 
fairy to the lovers, Mary Montjoy and Stephen Bellott. 

The brothers, Francis and Anthony Bacon, were knit 
by the closest bonds of love. Yet in death they were 
divided. In Lord Bacon's will he says: 

Ixii 



"For my burial, I desire it may be in St. 
Michael's Church, St. Albans: there was my 
mother buried, and it is the parish church of my 
mansion-house of Gorhambury, and it is the only 
Christian church within the walls of Old Veru- 
1am. For my name and memory, I leave it to 
men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and 
the next ages." 

It is a consolation to know that St. Olave Church in 
Hart Street, London, and St. Michael's Church in St. 
Albans, are still standing, and that in each of these is 
shrined all that was mortal of these wonderfully de- 
voted and loving brothers, Anthony and Francis Bacon. 

After the exit of Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of 
the Revels, in 1673, Bacon's kinsmen, the Killigrews, 
became leaders in the theatrical world. 

Bacon's niece married Sir Robert Killigrew, and 
their two sons, William, born in 1606, and Thomas, in 
161 1, became dramatic authors. William Killigrew 
was knighted by Charles I, and was made a gentleman 
Usher to that king. He was vice-chamberlain to the 
Queen and brought out three plays about 1665. 

His younger brother, Thomas, became more famous 
as a dramatist and may be said to have succeeded Sir 
Henry Herbert in the office of Master of the Revels. 
He was a page to Charles I, and a groom of the Cham- 
ber of Charles II. "As motley was the only wear" in 
that licentious monarch's court, Thomas Killigrew, like 
Jaques, may have thought: 

"Invest me in my motley; give me leave to 
speak the truth." 
for to his master, Charles II, he dared openly to speak 

Ixiii 



Legal Documents (Quit Claims) in which Shakespeare 
figured : 

"Between William Shakespeare, complainant, 
and William Underhill, gentleman, maintaining 
possession by force (or in distraint) as to one 
dwelling house (mesuagio), two barns (orgrain- 
aries) and two gardens with appurtenances, in 
Stratford-on-Avon, when a Summons was made 
as to an agreement between them in the same 
court, whereas the aforesaid William Underhill 
has acknowledged that the aforesaid tenements 
with appurtenances are the rightful property of 
William Shakespeare himself as (are) those 
which the same William holds by gift of the 
aforesaid William Underhill and he has remit- 
ted the same and given a quit claim as to himself 
and his heirs, that they themselves will guarantee 
to the aforesaid William Shakespeare and his 
heirs, the aforesaid tenements with appurte- 
nances forever. And for this acknowledgement, 
quit claim, guarantee, termination and harmony, 
the same William Shakespeare has given to the 
aforesaid William Underhill sixty pounds sterl- 
ing. Easter Term, 39 Elizabeth. 

This "termination" was not realized, for five years 
later 1602 "another fine was levied on New Place for 
the same property," says Halliwell Phillips ibid. 

The reader may have observed that in the first fine, 
the title of "gentleman" is put after William Under- 
bill's name, but not given to Shakespeare. Not till 
five years later is the title of gentleman given to Shakes- 
peare in these documents. The following is a transla- 
tion of the second fine : 

Ixvi 



"Between William Shakespeare, gentleman, 
complainant, and Hercules Underbill, gentle- 
man, maintaining possession by force (deforce- 
antem) concerning one dwelling-bouse, two 
barns (granaries) , two gardens and two orchards, 
witb appurtenances, in Stratford-on-Avon, 
whence a summons of a settled agreement be- 
tween them was entered in the same court where- 
as the aforesaid Hercules has acknowledged that 
the aforesaid tenements with appurtenances are 
the lawful property of the same William person- 
ally, like those which the same William holds by 
gift of the aforesaid Hercules, and he has re- 
mitted them and given a quit claim of himself 
and his heirs to the aforesaid William and his 
heirs forever. And besides the said Hercules 
has granted for himself and his heirs, that they 
themselves will guarantee to the aforesaid Wil- 
liam and his heirs the aforesaid tenements with 
appurtenances against the aforesaid Hercules 
and his heirs forever; and for this acknowledge- 
ment, remission, quit claim, warrant, fine and 
harmony, the said William has given to the 
aforesaid Hercules sixty pounds sterling." 
(Michelmas Term 44 and 45 Elizabeth.) 

Tyrwhitt was the discoverer of the Shake-scene allu- 
sion in Robert Greene's ''Groats-worth of PVit" written 
in 1592. Most commentators agree that this allusion of 
the dying stage-poet, Greene, was to Shakespeare, who 
like Pallas was immediately brought forth armed and 
ready to "shake a lance" at ignorance. 

"The tongues of dying men enforce attention." 

Hence it is that so much has been written on these 
allusions in Greene's last work, the Groats-Worth of 

Ixvii 



JVit. It may seem rash in the writer to offer a new 
solution or interpretation of Greene's tirade against 
Shakespeare, but it will do no harm. 

Greene was stung to the quick by the praise bestowed 
on this unnamed man by Spencer "best read in ancient 
poetry," who likened the new dramatist to an Eagle: 

"Whose Muse full of high thoughts invention, 
Doth like himself heroically sound." 

Spencer was looked up to by the whole literary world 
and his judgment respected by the best men of letters 
in his day. 

Also in the year 1592, Greene's quondam companion, 
Thomas Nashe, whom the poet, Thomas Lodge, called 
"true English Aretine/' published his "Pierce Penni- 
lesse," wherein he lauds enthusiastically, "brave Tal- 
bot" in the play of Henry the VI. Now this praise 
from Nashe was. the unkindest cut of all, to the poor 
dying Greene, for he and Nashe had held merry meet- 
ings and Nashe's first published article came out in 
Greene's Mentaphon in 1589, in which he gibes at the 
author of Hamlet as follows: 

"An Epistle to the Gentlemen Students of the 
Two Universities, by Thomas Nashe," prefixed 
to the first edition of Robert Greene's "Mena- 
phon" — according to the title-page, published in 
1589. The supposed allusion to Shakespeare is 
in the words following: 

"I will turn back to my first text of studies 
of delight, and talk a little in friendship with a 
few of our trivial translators. It is a common 
practice now-a-days, amongst a sort of shifting 
companions that run through every art and thrive 

Ixviii 



by none, to leave the trade of Noverint, whereto 
they were born, and busy themselves with the en- 
deavours of art, that could scarcely Latinize their 
neck-verse if they should have need ; yet English 
Seneca, read by candle-light, yields many good 
sentences, as bloud is a beggar, and so forth; and 
if you intreat him fair, in a frosty morning, he 
will afford you whole Hamlets; I should say 
handfuls of tragical speeches. But O grief! 
Tempiis edax rerum — what is that will last 
always? The sea exhaled by drops will in con- 
tinuance be dry; and Seneca, let blood, line by 
line, and page by page, at length must needs die 
to our stage." 

Greene, like the old poet Hoccleve, had wasted his life 
in excesses of all kinds, and in his bitter anguish he 
hurled reproaches upon his former associates. As for 
the players, he called them '^apes," "rude grooms," 
"buckram gentlemen," "peasants," "painted monsters," 
"burrs" and "Puppits that speak from our mouths." 

But there was one more repellant to Greene than all 
the others ; an unnamed man whom he calls ''an upstart 
Crow with his Ti{/ers heart wrapt in a player's hide." 
Ill Hen. VI.A.-I.-S-IV. 

Whetstone's Metrical Life of George Gascoigne, who 
died 1^79, has these lines: 

For who can bear to see a painted crow 
Singing aloft when Turtles mourn below. 

"Upstart crow" means one suddenly raised. 
Wither in his Juvenilia calls the Poetasters 
"Crow-poets and Poetic-daws." 

All Greene's pricking of conscience for his own sins 
could not stifle the contempt he felt for this suddenly 

Ixix 



raised pretender. Greene's words imply that the of- 
fender was masking under the dress of a player and 
that he was not a professional actor. Then concentrat- 
ing all his energy and with an earnestness that cannot 
be questioned he continues, '^and being an absolute 
Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the only 
Shake-scene in a country." Greene had dipped his pen 
in venom and may have felt that the blast he had dealt 
would wither the reputation of the man he so hated. 
There is a similarity between Shake-scene and Shakes- 
peare, which cannot be ignored, but why did not 
Greene (if he really meant Shakespeare) call him Wil- 
helmus factotum, to identify him more clearly? 

"Factotum" is significant. It means a doer of all 
kinds of work for another — a handy deputy in fact. 
There is only one notable and historical Johanne's fac- 
totum I can call to mind, who literally fills the role 
Greene assigns to ''Shake-scene," and this is the ''peur 
Johannes" of the celebrated philosopher Roger Bacon, 
and I think Robert Greene had this example in mind 
when he appellatively used it, because he had written 
before his illness, a comedy on ''Friar Bacon and Friar 
Bungay" and was well versed in the writings of the 
ancients. The scenes between Friar Bacon and his man 
(whom Greene in his play calls Miles) are very amus- 
ing, especially those relating to the Brazen Head. 

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, entered S. R. 
14 May, 1594, and printed the same year as writ- 
ten by Greene and played by the Queen's men. 
These were presumably the original owners and 
may have sent the play to press. Greene may 
have written it in 1589 when St. James' Day fell 

Ixx 



on a Friday. . . . Henslowe's Diary edited by 
Walter W. Greg, part ii. 

The real Roger Bacon trusted his Johannes factotum 
with his most precious and secret works and sent the 
poor obscure youth with his treasured manuscripts to 
Pope Clement IV in 1267. No biography of this 
Johannes is known but like Shakespeare of Stratford, 
he was friendless and poor. Some writers have called 
him "John of London" but others deny this identifica- 
tion. 

For the following account of Roger Bacon's "peur 
Johannes'' see Fr. Rogeri Bacon Ed. by J. S. Brewer, 
Lond., p. 87, 1859, where Brewer says: 

"Among his more illustrious pupils was John 
of London, to whom nature had been as prodigal 
as fortune was unkind. Struck with the genius 
that dawned in the countenance, Bacon took the 
lad under his protection, being then fifteen years 
old, and instructed him with so much care that 
he outstripped all his contemporaries at Oxford 
and Paris. He was sent by Bacon with various 
[three] books to Clement IV. in the year 1267; 
and he is mentioned with great commendation on 
more than one occasion: "For this reason I cast 
"my eyes on a lad, whom I caused to be instructed 
"five or six years ago in the languages, in mathe- 
"matics and optics, wherein is the chief difficulty 
"of all that I have now sent you. I have gratuit- 
"ously instructed him with my own lips since the 
"time I received your mandate, foreseeing that 
"there was no other, whom I could employ with 
"so much satisfaction. And therefore I thought 
"I would despatch him, that if it pleased your 
"wisdom to use my messenger, you might find 

Ixxi 



'him fit for the purpose; if not, he might still 
'present my writings to your eminence. For un- 
'questionably there is not any one among the 
'Latins who in all that I wish 'can answer so 
'many questions (because of the method that I 
'pursue, and because I have instructed him), as 
'he can do, who has learnt from my own lips, 
'and been instructed by my counsel. 

"God is my witness, that had it not been for 
'your reverence and to your advantage, I would 
'not have mentioned him. Had I wanted to send 
'a person for my own profit, I could easily have 
'found others more suited for advancing my in- 
'terests; had I consulted the advantage of the 
'messenger, I love others more, and am more 
'obliged to them, because I am under no obliga- 
'tion to him, either from kindred or otherwise, 
'except so far as I am to any ordinary person; 
'even less. For when he came to me as a poor 
'boy, I caused him to be nurtured and instructed 
'for the love of God, especially since for aptitude 
'and innocence I never found so towardly a 
'youth. He has made such progress, that he will 
'be able to gain more truly and successfully what 
'is needful, than anyone else at Paris, although 
'he is not more than twenty or twenty-one. For 
'there is no one at Paris who knows so much of 
'the root of philosophy, although he has not pro- 
'duced the branches, flowers, and fruits, because 
'of his youth, and because he has had no experi- 
'ence in teaching. But he has the means of sur- 
'passing all the Latins if he live to grow old, and 
'proceeds as he has begun." 

"He then proceeds to praise highly the courte- 
ous and retiring manners of this youth, and to 
commend him for other good qualities." 

Ixxii 



Brewer adds: 

"I may state here in reference to John of Lon- 
don, who was sent on these occasions to Pope 
Clement, that both for Bacon's sake and his own 
merits he was advanced to some dignity, though 
of what nature I cannot determine. Some affirm 
that he lived many years after this, and was 
eminent for his writings. But as these were 
produced in a foreign country, no notice of their 
contents has reached us. In all probability they 
have been lost in Italy." 

The writings of this traditional Johannes seem to 
be as legendary as his name. Towards the end of his 
Groats Worth of Wit, Greene says: 

"Tread on a worm and it will turn; then 
blame not scollars, who are vexed with sharpe 
and bitter lines, if they reproove too much," 

and adds: — 

"Weakness will scarce sufifer me to write, yet 
to my fellows scoUers about this city will I 
direct these few lines." 

How did the gentle Shakespeare receive Greene's 
peevish lines? In Midsummer Night's Dream, V. i., 
Entered by Tho. Fisher in the Stationers' Registers, 
Oct. 8, 1600, I like to think in the lines from Spencer: 

". . . That same gentle spirit from whose pen 
Large streams of honey and sweet nector flow" 
alluded to the death of Robert Greene in these 
exquisite lines: — 

"The trice three Muses, mourning for the death 
Of learning, late deceased in beggary." 

Ixxiii 



And if this interpretation be true I agree with 
Spencer: 

"A gentler shepheard may no where be found : 
Whose Muse full of high thoughts invention 
Doth like himself Heriocally sound." 

Dyce, in his Edition of Greene's Works, Vol. I , has 
this: 

Account of R. Greene. 
It has been supposed that he took holy orders. 
In the LansJowne Manuscripts, 982, art. 102, 
fol. 187, under the head of '^Additions to Mr. 
Wood's Report of Mr. Robert Green, an emi- 
nent poet, who died about 1592," is a reference to 
a document in Rymer's. "Foedera," from which 
it appears that a "Robert Grene" was, in 1576, 
one of the Queen's chaplains, and that he was 
presented by her Majesty to the rectory of Walk- 
ington, in the diocese of York. If this document 
relates to the poet, his birth must be fixed earlier 
than 1560. The late Octavius Gilchrist states 
that our author was presented to the vicarage of 
Tollesbury, in Essex, the 19th June, 1584, which 
he resigned the next year. 
"Anno 1576. Regina, delectis Nobis in Christo, De- 
cano et Capitulo Ecclesiaenostrae Cathedralis et Metro- 
politicae Eboracensis, aut Vicario suo in Spiritualibus 
Generali et Officiali Principali, aut alii cuicunque in 
hac parte Potestatem habenti, Salutem. 

"Ad Rectoriam sive Ecclesiam Parochialem de 
Walkington Eboracen. Diaeces. per mortem Johannis 
Newcome ultimi Incumbentis ibidem, jam vacantem et 
ad nostram Donatinem et Pr^sentationem pleno jure 
spectantem, Dilectum nobis in Christo, Robertum 
Grene, unum Capellanorum nostrorum Capellae nostrae 
Regiae, vobis Tenore Praesentium prae sentamus, Man- 

Ixxiv 



dantes et Requirentes quatenus eundem Robertum 
Grene ad Rectoriam sive Ecclesiam Parochialem de 
Walkington prsdictam admittere, ipsumque Rectorem 
ejusdem ac in et de eadem cum suis Juribus et Perti- 
nentiis universis instituere et investire, caeteraque omnia 
et singula peragere facere et perimplere, quae vestro in 
hac parte incumbunt Officio Pastorali, velitis cum 
favore. In cujus rei, &c. 

"Teste Regina apud Gorhambury tricesimo prime 
die Augusti. 

"Per breve de Privato Sigillo." — Rymer's Fcedera, 
tom. XV. p. 765. 

That is: Year 1576. The Queen having been 
chosen in Christ, to the Dean and head of our 
Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of York, 
or to his vicor, in his general and official ca- 
pasity in Spiritual affairs, or to any one else 
having power in this Sphere — greeting. 

For the rectory or parish church of Walk- 
ington in the diocese of York, now left vacant 
through the death of John Newcome, the last 
incumbent of the same, and looking most rightly 
to our gift and presentation, we do present to 
you, in view of the state of present affairs, 
Robert Greene, chosen by us in Christ one of our 
chaplains of our Royal Chapel, ordering and 
asking that you be pleased with good-will to ad- 
mit the same Robert Greene to the rectory or 
parish church of the Walkington aforesaid, and 
to establish and invest him as rector of the same 
with all the rights and privileges in and of the 
same, and that you perform, accomplish and 
complete both collectively and singly all the 
other things which fall to your pastoral duty in 
this connection. 

Ixxv 



In [witness] of which thing &c. 
The Queen having witness at Gorhambury on 
the thirty-first day of August. 
Per breve. By her private seal. 

Per breve may be a legal term. According to Cen- 
tury Dictionary, Breve is still used of a royal mandate, 
so I venture "by her royal mandate." 

The following excerpts are from Greene's Comedy 
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. 

Enter Friar Bacon, with Miles, his poor 
scholar, with books under his arm; with them 
Burden, Mason, Clement, three doctors. 

Bacon. Miles, where are you? 

Miles. Hie sum, doctissime et reverendis- 
sime doctor. 

Bacon. Attulisti nos libros meos de necro- 
mantia? 

Miles. Ecce quam bonum et quam jucun- 
dum habitare libros in unum. 

Bacon. Now, masters of our academic state. 

That rule in Oxford, viceroys in your place. 

Whose heads contain maps of the liberal arts. 

Spending your time in depth of learned skill. 

Why flock you thus to Bacon's secret cell, 

A friar newly stalled in Brazen-nose? 

Say what's your mind, that I may make reply. 

Burd. Bacon, we hear that long we have sus- 
pect. 

That thou art read in magic's mystery. 

In Pyromancy, to divine by flames; 

To tell by Hydromatic, ebbs and tides; 

By Aeromancy to discover doubts, 

To plain out questions as Apollo did. 

Bacon. Well, master Burden, what of all 
this? 

Ixxvi 



Miles. Marry, sir, he doth but fulfil, by re- 
hearsing of these names, the fable of the Fox and 
the Grapes; that which is above us pertains 
nothing to us. 

Burd. I tell thee. Bacon, Oxford makes 

report. 
Nay, England, and the Court of Henry says, 
Th'art making of a brazen head by art. 
Which shall unfold strange doubts and aphor- 
isms. 
And read a lecture in philosophy: 
And by the help of devils and ghastly fiends. 
Thou mean'st ere many years or days be past. 
To compass England with a wall of brass. 
Bacon. And what of this? 
Miles. What of this, master? Why he doth 
speak mystically, for he knows if your skill fail 
to make a brazen head, yet mother Water's 
strong ale will fit his turn to make him have a 
copper nose. 
Clem. Bacon, we come not grieving at thy 

skill, 
But joying that our academy yields 
A man supposed the wonder of the world; 
For if thy cunning work these miracles, 
England and Europe shall admire thy fame, 
And Oxford shall in characters of brass. 
And statues, such as w^ere built up in Rome, 
Eternize Friar Bacon for his art. 
Mason. Then, gentle friar, tell us thy intent. 
Bacon. Seeing you come as friends unto the 

friar, 
Resolve you, doctors, Bacon can by books. 
Make storming Boreas thunder from his cave, 
And dim fair Luna to a dark eclipse. 
The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell. 
Trembles when Bacon bids him, or his fiends, 

Ixxvii 



Bow to the force of his Pentageron. 
What art can work, the frolic friar knows, 
And therefore will I turn magic books. 
And strain out necromancy to the deep. 
I have contriv'd and f ram'd a head of brass, 
(I made Belcephon hammer out the stuff) 
And that by art shall read philosophy; 
And I will strengthen England by my skill. 
That if ten Caesars liv'd and reign'd in Rome, 
With all the legions Europe doth contain. 
They should not touch a grass of English 

ground. 
The work that Ninus rear'd at Babylon, 
The brazen walls fram'd by Semiramis, 
Carv'd out like to the portal of the sun, 
Shall not be such as rings the English strond. 
From Dover to the market place of Rye. 
Burd. Is this possible? 
Miles, ril bring ye two or three witnesses. 
Burd. What be those? 

Miles. Marry, sir, three or four as honest 
devils, and good companions as any be in hell. 
Mason. No doubt but magic may do much 

in this. 
For he that reads but mathematic rules. 
Shall find conclusions that avail to work 
Wonders that pass the common sense of men. 
Burd. But Bacon roves a bow beyond his 

reach. 
And tells of more than magic can perform; 
Thinking to get a fame by fooleries. 
Have I not pass'd as far in state of schools. 
And read of many secrets? yet to think. 
That heads of brass can utter any voice. 
Or more, to tell of deep philosophy. 
This is a fable Aesop had forgot. 

Ixxviii 



Bacon. Burden, thou wrong'st me in detract- 
ing thus; 

Bacon loves not to stufif hiself with lies: 

But tell me 'fore these doctors, if thou dare, 

Of certain questions I shall move to thee. 

Burd. I will: ask what thou can. 

Miles. Marry, sir, he'll straight be on your 
pickpack, to know whether the feminine or the 
masculine gender be most worthy. 

Bacon. Were you not yesterday, master Bur- 
den, at Henley upon the Thames? 

Burd. I was; what then? 

Bacon. What book studied you thereon all 
night? 

Burd. I? none at all; I read not there a line. 

Bacon. Then, doctors, friar Bacon's art 
knows nought. 

Clem. What say you to this, master Burden? 
does he not touch you? 

Burd. I pass not of his frivolous speeches. 

Miles. Nay, master Burden, my master, ere 
he hath done with you, will turn you from a doc- 
tor to a dunce, and shake you so small, that he 
will leave no more learning in you than is in 
Balaam's ass. 

Bacon. Masters' for that learn'd Burden's 
skill is deep, 

And sore he doubts of Bacon's cabalism, 

I'll show you why he haunts to Henley oft: 

Not, doctors, for to taste the fragrant air. 

But there to spend the night in alchemy, 

To multiply with secret spells of art. 

Thus private steals he learning from us all. 

To prove my sayings true, I'll shew you 
straight, 

The book he keeps at Henley for himself. 

Ixxix 



Miles. Nay, now my master goes to conjura- 
tion, take heed. 

Bacon. Masters, stand still, fear not, I'll 
shew you but his book. (Here he conjures.) 

Per omnes deos infernales, Belcephon! 
Enter a WOMAN with a shoulder of a mutton 
on a spit, and a Devil. 

Miles. O, master, cease your conjuration, or 
you spoil all, for here's a she devil come with a 
shoulder of mutton on a spit: you have marred 
the devil's supper, but no doubt he thinks our 
college fare is slender, and so has sent you his 
cook with a shoulder of mutton, to make it ex- 
ceed. 

Hostess. Oh, where am I, or what's become 
of me? 

Bacon. What art thou? 

Hostess. Hostess at Henley, mistress of the 
Bell. 

Bacon. How cam'st thou here? 

Hostess. As I was in the kitchen 'mongst the 
_ maids. 

Spitting the meat 'gainst supper for my guess, 

A motion mov'd me to look forth of door : 

No sooner had I pry'd into the yard, 

But straight a whirlwind hoisted from thence. 

And mounted me aloft unto the clouds. 

As in a trance I thought nor feared nought, 

Nor know I where or whither I was ta'en. 

Nor where I am, nor what these persons be. 

Bacon. No? know you not master Burden? 

Hostess. O yes, good sir, he is my daily guest. 

What, master Burden, 'twas but yesternight, 

That you and I at Henley play'd at cards. 

Burd. I know not what we did. A pox of 
all conjuring friars. 

Ixxx 



Clem. Now, jolly friar, tell us, is this the 

book 
That Burden is so careful to look on? 
Bacon. It is; but. Burden, tell me now, 
Think'st thou that Bacon's necromantic skill 
Cannot perform his head and wall of brass 
When he can fetch thy hostess in such post? 
Miles. I'll warrant you, master, if master 
Burden could conjure as well as you, he would 
have his book every night from Henley to study 
on at Oxford. 
Mason. Burden, 

What, are you mated by this frolic friar? 
Look how he droops; his guilty conscience 
Drives him to 'bash, and makes his hostess 

blush. 
Bacon. Well, mistress, for I will not have 

you miss'd. 
You shall to Henley to cheer up your guests 
'Fore supper 'gin. Burden, bid her adieu: 
Say farewell to your hostess 'fore she goes. 
Sirrah, away, and set her safe at home. 
Hostess. Master Burden, when shall we see 
you at Henley? 

(Exeunt Hostess and the Devil.) 
Burd. The devil take thee and Henley, too. 
Miles. Master, shall I make a good motion? 
Bacon. What's that? 

Miles. Marry, sir, now that my hostess is 
gone to provide supper, conjure up another 
spirit, and send doctor Burden flying after. 
Bacon. Thus rulers of our academic state, 
You have seen the friar frame his art by 

proof; 
And as the college called Brazen-nose, 
Is under him, and he the master there. 
So surely shall this head of brass be fram'd, 

Ixxxi 



And yield forth strange and uncouth aphor- 
isms: 
And hell and Hecate shall fail the friar, 
But I will circle England round with brass. 
Miles. So be it, et nunc et semper; amen. 

(Exeunt omnes.) 
* * * * 
Emp. Where is the prince, my lord? 
Hen. He posted down, not long since, from 

the court. 
To Suffolk side, to merry Framlingham, 
To sport himself amongst my fallow deer: 
From thence, by packets sent to Hampton- 
house, 
We hear the prince is ridden with his lords, 
To Oxford, in the academy there 
To hear dispute amongst the learned men. 
But we will send forth letters for my son. 
To will him come from Oxford to the court. 
Emp. Nay, rather, Henry, let us as we be, 
Ride for to visit Oxford with our train. 
Fain would I see your universities. 
And what learn'd men your academy yields. 
From Hapsburg have I brought a learned 

clerk. 
To hold dispute with English orators: 
This doctor, surnam'd Jaques Vandermast, 
A German born, pass'd into Padua, 
To Florence and to fair Bologna, 
To Paris, Rheims, and stately Orleans, 
And, talking there with men of art, put down 
The chiefest of them all in aphorisms. 
In magic, and the mathematic rules: 
Now let us, Henry, try him in your schools. 
Hen. He shall, my lord; this motion likes 
me well. 

Ixxxii 



We'll progress straight to Oxford with our 

trains, 
And see what men our academy brings. 
And, wonder Vandermast, welcome to me : 
In Oxford shalt thou find a jolly friar, 
Caird Friar Bacon, England's only flower. 
Set him but nonplus in his magic spells, 
And make him yield in mathematic rules, 
And for thy glory I will bind thy brows. 
Not with a poet's garland, made of bays. 
But with a coronet of choicest gold. 
Whilst then we set to Oxford with our troops, 
Let's in and banquet in our English court. 

(Exeunt.) 

Enter Bacon and Miles. 

Erms. Stay, who comes here? 

War. Some scholar; and we'll ask him where 
friar Bacon is. 

Bacon. Why, thou arrant dunce, shall I 
never make thee a good scholar? doth not all the 
town cry out and say, friar Bacon's subsizer is 
the greatest blockhead in all Oxford? Why thou 
canst not speak one word of true Latin. 

Miles. No, sir? yet, what is this else; "Ego 
sum tuus homo," I am your man : I warrant you, 
sir, as good Tully's phrase as any is in Oxford. 

Bacon. Come on, sirrah ; what part of speech 
is Ego? 

Miles. Ego, that is I: marry, nomen sub- 
stantivo. 

Bacon. How prove you that? 
^ Miles. Why, sir, let him prove himself and 
a' will; I can be heard, felt, and understood. 

Bacon. O gross dunce! (Here beat him.) 

Edw. Come, let us break ofif this dipute be- 

Ixxxiii 



tween these two. Sirrah, where is Brazen-nose 
college? 

Miles. Not far from Coppersmith's Hall. 

Edw. What, dost thou mock me? 

Miles. Not I, sir; but what would you at 
Brazen-nose? 

Erms. Marry, we would speak with Friar 
Bacon. 

Miles. Whose men be you? 

Erms. Marry, scholar, here's our master. 

Ralph. Sirrah, I am the master of these good 
fellows; mayest thou not know me to be a lord 
by my reparrel? 

Miles. Then here's good game for the hawk ; 
for here's the master fool, and a covey of cox- 
combs : one wise man, I think, would spring you 
all. 

Edw. Gog's wounds! Warren, kill him. 

War. Why, Ned, I think the devil be in my 
sheath ; I cannot get out my dagger. 

Erms. Nor I mine: swones, Ned, I think I 
am bewitched. 

Miles. A company of scabs! the proudest of 
you all draw your weapon if he can. See how 
boldly I speak now my master is by. 

Edw. I strive in vain ; but if my sword is shut, 

And conjured fast by magic in my sheath, 

Villain, here is my fist. 

(Strike him a box on the ear.) 

Miles. Oh! I beseech you conjure his hands, 
too, that he may not lift his arms to his head, for 
he is light-fingered. 

Ralph. Ned, strike him; I'll warrant thee 
by mine honour. 

Bacon. What means the English prince to 
wrong my man? 

Ixxxiv 



Edw. To whom speak'st thou? 

Bacon. To thee. 

Edw. Who art thou? 

Bacon. Could you not judge, when all your 
swords grew fast, 
That Friar Bacon was not far from hence? 
Edward, King Henry's son, and Prince of 

Wales, 
Thy fool disguis'd cannot conceal thyself: 
I know both Ermsby and the Sussex Earl, 
Else friar Bacon had but little skill. 
Thou com'st in post from merry Fressingfield, 
Fast fancied to the keeper's bonnie lass. 
To crave some succour from the jolly friar; 
And Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, hast thou left, 
To 'treat fair Margaret to allow thy loves: 
But friends are men, and love can baffle lords; 
The earl both woos and courts her for himself. 

War. Ned, this is strange; the friar knoweth 
all. 

Erms. Apollo could not utter more than this. 

Edw. I stand amaz'd to hear this jolly friar. 
Tell even the very secrets of my thoughts. 
But, learned Bacon, since thou know'st the cause. 
Why I did post so fast from Fressingfield, 
Help, friar, at a pinch, that I may have 
The love of lovely Margaret to myself. 
And, as I am true Prince of Wales, FU give 
Living and lands to strengthen thy college state. 

War. Good friar, help the prince in this. 

Ralph. Why, servant Ned, will not the friar 
do it? Were not my sword glued to my scab- 
bard by conjuration, I would cut off his head, 
and make him do it by force. 

Miles. In faith, my lord, your manhood and 
your sword is all alike; they are so fast conjured 
that we shall never see them. 

Ixxxv 



Erms. What, doctor, in a dump! tush, help 
the prince, 
And thou shalt see how liberal he will prove. 

Bacon. Crave not such actions greater dumps 
than these? 
I will, my lord, strain out my magic spells. 
For this day comes the earl to Fressingfield, 
And 'fore that night shuts in the day with dark. 
They'll be betrouthed each to other fast. 
But come with me, we'll to my study straight, 
And in a glass prospective I will shew 
What's done this day in merry Fressingfield. 

Edw. Gramercies, Bacon; I will quite thy 
pain. 

Bacon. But send your train, my lord, into the 
town: 
My scholar shall go bring them to their inn; 
Meanwhile we'll see the knavery of the earl. 

Edw. Warren, leave me, and Ermsby take 
the fool ; 
Let him be master, and go revel it. 
Till I and friar Bacon talk awhile. 

War. We will, my lord. 

Ralph. Faith, Ned, and Fll lord it out till 
thou comest: Fll be Prince of Wales over all 
the black pots in Oxford. (Exeunt) 

BACON and EDWARD go into the study. 

Bacon. Now, frolic Edward, welcome to my 
cell; 
Here tempers friar Bacon many toys. 
And holds this place his consistory court. 
Wherein the devils plead homage to his words. 
Within this glass prospective thou shalt see 
This day what's done in merry Fressingfield, 
Twixt lovely Peggy and the Lincoln Earl. 

Edw. Friar, thou glad'st me: Now shall 
Edward try 

Ixxxvi 



How Lacy meaneth to his sovereign lord. 

Bacon. Stand there and look directly in the 
glass. 

Enter MARGARET and Friar BUNGAY. 

Bacon. What sees my lord? 

Edw. I see the keeper's lovely lass appear, 
As brightsome as the paramour of Mars, 
Only attended by a jolly friar. 

Bacon. Sit still and keep the crystal in your 

eye. 

* * * * 

Enter BACON 

Bacon. All hail to this royal company, 
That sit to hear and see this strange dispute. 
Bungay, how stand'st thou as a man amaz'd? 
What, hath the German acted more than thou? 

Van. What art thou that question thus? 

Bacon. Men call me Bacon. 

Van. Lordly thou look'st, as if that thou wert 
learn'd; 
Thy countenance as if science held her seat 
Between the circled arches of thy brows. 

Enter Friar BACON, drawing the curtains, with a 
white stick, a book in his hand, and a lamp lighted by 
him; and the Brazen Head, and Miles, with weapons 
by him. 

Bacon. Miles, where are you? 
Miles. Here, sir. 

Bacon. How chance you tarry so long? 
Miles. Think you that watching of the Braz- 
en Head craves no furniture? I warrant you, 
sir, I have so armed myself, that if all your dev- 
ils come, I will not fear them an inch. 

Bacon. Miles, 
Thou know'st that I have dived into hell. 
And sought the darkest palaces of fiends, 

Ixxxvii 



That with my magic spells great Belcephon 
Hath left his lodge and kneeled at my cell : 
The rafters of the earth rent from the poles, 
And three-form'd Luna hid her silver looks, 
Trembling upon her concave continent. 
When Bacon read upon his magic book. 
With seven years tossing necromantic charms, - 
Poring upon dark Hecat's principles, 
I have fram'd out a monstrous head of brass. 
That by -the enchanting forces of the devil, 
Shall tell out strange and uncouth aphorisms. 
And girt fair England with a wall of brass. 
Bungay and I have watch'd these threescore days, 
And now our vital spirits crave some rest: 
If Argus liv'd, and had his hundred eyes. 
They could not over-watch Phobetor's night. 
Now, Miles, in thee rests Friar Bacon's Weal: 
The honour and renown of all his life 
Hangs in the watching of this Brazen Head; 
Therefore I charge thee by the immortal God, 
That holds the souls of men within his fist, 
This night thou watch ; for ere the morning star 
Sends out his glorious glister on the north. 
The head will speak; then. Miles, upon thy life. 
Wake me; for then by magic art I'll work. 
To end my seven years' task with excellence. 
If that a wink but shut thy watchful eye. 
Then farewell Bacon's glory and his fame! 
Draw close the curtains. Miles : now for thy life, 
Be watchful and — (Here he falleth asleep.) 

Miles. So; I thought you would talk your- 
self asleep anon, and 'tis no marvel, for Bungay 
on the days, and he on the nights, have watched 
just these ten and fifty days: now this is the 
night, and 'tis my task and no more. Now, 
Jesus bless me! what a goodly Head it is and a 
nose! You talk of nos autem glorificare; but 

Ixxxviii 



here's a nose, that I warrant may be called nos 
autem populare for the people of the parish. 
Well, I am furnished with weapons: now, sir, 
I will set me down by a post, and make it as 
good as a watchman to wake me if I chance to 
slumber. I thought, goodman Head, I would 
call you out of your memento. Passion a' God, 
I have almost broke my pate! Up, Miles, to your 
task; take your brown bill in your hand, here's 
some of your master's hobgoblins abroad. 

(With this a great noise.) 
The HEAD speaks. 

Head, Time is. 

Miles. Time is! Why, master Brazen-head, 
have you such a capital nose, and answer you 
with syllables. Time is? is this all your master's 
cunning, to spend seven years' study about Time 
is? Well, sir, it may be, we shall have some bet- 
ter orations of it anon: well, I'll watch you as 
narrowly as ever you were watched, and I'll play 
with you as the nightingale with the glow-worm ; 
I'll set a prick against my breast. Now rest 
there, Miles. Lord have mercy upon me, I have 
almost killed myself! Up, Miles, list how they 
rumble. 

Head. Time was. 

Miles. Well, Friar Bacon, you have spent 
your seven years study well, that can make your 
Head speak but two words at once. Time was. 
Yea marry, time was when my master was a wise 
man, but that was before he began to make the 
Brazen Head. You shall lie while your * * * 
ache, and your Head speak no better. Well, I 
will watch and walk up and down, and be a peri- 
patetian and a philosopher of Aristotle's stamp. 
What! a fresh noise? Take thy pistols in hand. 
Miles. 

Ixxxix 



tween these two. Sirrah, where is Brazen-nose 
college? 

Miles. Not far from Coppersmith's Hall. 

Edw. What, dost thou mock me? 

Miles. Not I, sir; but what would you at 
Brazen-nose? 

Erms. Marry, we would speak with Friar 
Bacon. 

Miles. Whose men be you? 

Erms. Marry, scholar, here's our master. 

Ralph. Sirrah, I am the master of these good 
fellows; mayest thou not know me to be a lord 
by my reparrel? 

Miles. Then here's good game for the hawk ; 
for here's the master fool, and a covey of cox- 
combs : one wise man, I think, would spring you 
all. 

Edw. Gog's wounds! Warren, kill him. 

War. Why, Ned, I think the devil be in my 
sheath; I cannot get out my dagger. 

Erms. Nor I mine: swones, Ned, I think I 
am bewitched. 

Miles. A company of scabs! the proudest of 
you all draw your weapon if he can. See how 
boldly I speak now my master is by. 

Edw. I strive in vain ; but if my sword is shut, 

And conjured fast by magic in my sheath, 

Villain, here is my fist. 

(Strike him a box on the ear.) 

Miles. Oh! I beseech you conjure his hands, 
too, that he may not lift his arms to his head, for 
he is light-fingered. 

Ralph. Ned, strike him; I'll warrant thee 
by mine honour. 

Bacon. What means the English prince to 
wrong my man? 

Ixxxiv 



Edw. To whom speak'st thou? 

Bacon. To thee. 

Edw. Who art thou? 

Bacon. Could you not judge, when all your 
swords grew fast, 
That Friar Bacon was not far from hence? 
Edward, King Henry's son, and Prince of 

Wales, 
Thy fool disguis'd cannot conceal thyself: 
I know both Ermsby and the Sussex Earl, 
Else friar Bacon had but little skill. 
Thou com'st in post from merry Fressingfield, 
Fast fancied to the keeper's bonnie lass. 
To crave some succour from the jolly friar; 
And Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, hast thou left. 
To 'treat fair Margaret to allow thy loves: 
But friends are men, and love can baffle lords; 
The earl both woos and courts her for himself. 

War. Ned, this is strange; the friar knoweth 
all. 

Erms. Apollo could not utter more than this. 

Edw. I stand amaz'd to hear this jolly friar. 
Tell even the very secrets of my thoughts. 
But, learned Bacon, since thou know'st the cause. 
Why I did post so fast from Fressingfield, 
Help, friar, at a pinch, that I may have 
The love of lovely Margaret to myself. 
And, as I am true Prince of Wales, Fll give 
Living and lands to strengthen thy college state. 

War. Good friar, help the prince in this. 

Ralph. Why, servant Ned, will not the friar 
do it? Were not my sword glued to my scab- 
bard by conjuration, I would cut off his head, 
and make him do it by force. 

Miles. In faith, my lord, your manhood and 
your sword is all alike; they are so fast conjured 
that we shall never see them. 

Ixxxv 



Erms. What, doctor, in a dump! tush, help 
the prince, 
And thou shalt see how liberal he will prove. 

Bacon. Crave not such actions greater dumps 
than these? 
I will, my lord, strain out my magic spells. 
For this day comes the earl to Fressingfield, 
And 'fore that night shuts in the day with dark. 
They'll be betrouthed each to other fast. 
But come with me, we'll to my study straight. 
And in a glass prospective I will shew 
What's done this day in merry Fressingfield. 

Edw. Gramercies, Bacon; I will quite thy 
pain. 

Bacon. But send your train, my lord, into the 
town : 
My scholar shall go bring them to their inn; 
Meanwhile we'll see the knavery of the earl. 

Edw. Warren, leave me, and Ermsby take 
the fool; 
Let him be master, and go revel it, 
Till I and friar Bacon talk awhile. 

War. We will, my lord. 

Ralph. Faith, Ned, and Ell lord it out till 
thou comest: Ell be Prince of Wales over all 
the black pots in Oxford. (Exeunt) 

BACON and EDWARD go into the study. 

Bacon. Now, frolic Edward, welcome to my 
cell; 
Here tempers friar Bacon many toys. 
And holds this place his consistory court, 
Wherein the devils plead homage to his words. 
Within this glass prospective thou shalt see 
This day what's done in merry Fressingfield, 
Twixt lovely Peggy and the Lincoln Earl. 

Edw. Friar, thou glad'st me: Now shall 
Edward try 

Ixxxvi 



How Lacy meaneth to his sovereign lord. 

Bacon. Stand there and look directly in the 
glass. 

Enter MARGARET and Friar BUNGAY. 

Bacon. What sees my lord? 

Edw. I see the keeper's lovely lass appear, 
As brightsome as the paramour of Mars, 
Only attended by a jolly friar. 

Bacon. Sit still and keep the crystal in your 

eye. 

* * * * 

Enter BACON 

Bacon. All hail to this royal company, 
That sit to hear and see this strange dispute. 
Bungay, how stand'st thou as a man amaz'd? 
What, hath the German acted more than thou? 

Van. What art thou that question thus? 

Bacon. Men call me Bacon. 

Van. Lordly thou look'st, as if that thou wert 
learn'd ; 
Thy countenance as if science held her seat 
Between the circled arches of thy brows. 

Enter Friar BACON, drawing the curtains, with a 
white stick, a book in his hand, and a lamp lighted by 
him; and the Brazen Head, and Miles, with weapons 
by him. 

Bacon. Miles, where are you? 
Miles. Here, sir. 

Bacon. How chance you tarry so long? 
Miles. Think you that watching of the Braz- 
en Head craves no furniture? I warrant you, 
sir, I have so armed myself, that if all your dev- 
ils come, I will not fear them an inch. 

Bacon. Miles, 
Thou know'st that I have dived into hell. 
And sought the darkest palaces of fiends, 

Ixxxvii 



That with my magic spells great Belcephon 
Hath left his lodge and kneeled at my cell : 
The rafters of the earth rent from the poles, 
And three-form'd Luna hid her silver looks, 
Trembling upon her concave continent. 
When Bacon read upon his magic book. 
With seven years tossing necromantic charms, - 
Poring upon dark Hecat's principles, 
I have fram'd out a monstrous head of brass. 
That by the enchanting forces of the devil, 
Shall tell out strange and uncouth aphorisms, 
And girt fair England with a wall of brass. 
Bungay and I have watch'd these threescore days. 
And now our vital spirits crave some rest: 
If Argus liv'd, and had his hundred eyes, 
They could not over-watch Phobetor's night. 
Now, Miles, in thee rests Friar Bacon's Weal: 
The honour and renown of all his life 
Hangs in the watching of this Brazen Head; 
Therefore I charge thee by the immortal God, 
That holds the souls of men within his fist, 
This night thou watch ; for ere the morning star 
Sends out his glorious glister on the north, 
The head will speak; then. Miles, upon thy life. 
Wake me; for then by magic art I'll work. 
To end my seven years' task with excellence. 
If that a wink but shut thy watchful eye. 
Then farewell Bacon's glory and his fame! 
Draw close the curtains, Miles : now for thy life. 
Be watchful and — (Here he falleth asleep.) 

Miles. So; I thought you would talk your- 
self asleep anon, and 'tis no marvel, for Bungay 
on the days, and he on the nights, have watched 
just these ten and fifty days: now this is the 
night, and 'tis my task and no more. Now, 
Jesus bless me! what a goodly Head it is and a 
nose! You talk of nos autem glorificare; but 

Ixxxviii 



here's a nose, that I warrant may be called nos 
autem populare for the people of the parish. 
Well, I am furnished with weapons: now, sir, 
I will set me down by a post, and make it as 
good as a watchman to wake me if I chance to 
slumber. I thought, goodman Head, I would 
call you out of your memento. Passion a' God, 
I have almost broke my pate! Up, Miles, to your 
task; take your brown bill in your hand, here's 
some of your master's hobgoblins abroad. 

(With this a great noise.) 
The HEAD speaks. 

Head, Time is. 

Miles. Time is! Why, master Brazen-head, 
have you such a capital nose, and answer you 
with syllables, Time is? is this all your master's 
cunning, to spend seven years' study about Time 
is? Well, sir, it may be, we shall have some bet- 
ter orations of it anon: well, I'll watch you as 
narrowly as ever you were watched, and I'll play 
with you as the nightingale with the glow-worm ; 
I'll set a prick against my breast. Now rest 
there. Miles. Lord have mercy upon me, I have 
almost killed myself! Up, Miles, list how they 
rumble. 

Head. Time was. 

Miles. Well, Friar Bacon, you have spent 
your seven years study well, that can make your 
Head speak but two words at once. Time was. 
Yea marry, time was when my master was a wise 
man, but that was before he began to make the 
Brazen Head. You shall lie while your * * * 
ache, and your Head speak no better. Well, I 
will watch and walk up and down, and be a peri- 
patetian and a philosopher of Aristotle's stamp. 
What! a fresh noise? Take thy pistols in hand. 
Miles. 

Ixxxix 



(Here the Head speaks, and a lightning flash- 
eth forth, and a hand appears that break- 
eth down the Head with a hammer.) 

Head. Time is past. 

Miles. Master! master! up, hell's broken 
loose! your Head speaks! and there's such a 
thunder and lightning, that I warrant all Ox- 
ford is up in arms. Out of your bed, and take a 
brown bill in your hand; the latter day is come. 

Bacon. Miles, I come. O passing warily 
watch'd! 
Bacon will make thee next himself in love. 
When spake the Head? 

Miles. When spake the head! did not you 
say that he should tell strange principles of phi- 
losophy? Why, sir, it speaks but two words at 
a time. 

Bacon. Why, villain, hath it spoken oft? 

Mile. Oft! ay marry hath it, thrice; but in 
all those three times it hath uttered but seven 
words. 

Bacon. As how? 

Miles. Marry sir, the first time he said. Time 
is, as if Fabius Commentator should have pro- 
nounced a sentence; (the second time) he said. 
Time was; and the third time, with thunder and 
lightning, as in great choler, he said, Time is 
past. 

Bacon. 'Tis past, indeed. Ah, villain! time 
is past: 
My life, my fame, my glory, all are past. 
Bacon, the turrets of thy hope are ruin'd down. 
Thy seven years' study lieth in the dust: 
Thy Brazen Head lies broken through a slave. 
That watch'd, and would not when the Head 

did will. 
What said the Head first? 



Miles. Even, sir, Time is. 

Bacon. Villain! if thou had'st call'd to Ba- 
con then. 
If thou had'st vvatch'd, and wak'd the sleepy 

friar, 
The Brazen Head had utter'd aphorisms, 
And England had been circled round with brass: 
But proud Astmenoth, ruler of the north, 
And Demogorgon, master of the fates. 
Grudge that a mortal man should work so much. 
Hell trembled at my dep commanding spells. 
Fiends f rown'd to see a man their over-match : 
Bacon might boast more than a man might boast; 
But now the braves of Bacon have an end, 
Europe's conceit of Bacon hath an end, 
His seven years' practice sorteth to ill end; 
And, villain, sith my glory hath an end, 
I will appoint thee to some fatal end. 
Villain, avoid! get thee from Bacon's sight: 
Vagrant, go roam and range about the world. 
And perish as a vagabond on earth! 

Miles. Why then, sir, you forbid me your 
service. 

Bacon. My service? villain! with a fatal 
curse, 
That direful plagues and mischiefs fall on thee. 

Miles. 'Tis no matter, I am against you with 
the old proverb, the more the fox is cursed, the 
better he fares. God be with you, sir : I'll take 
but a book in my hand, a wide-sleeved gown on 
my back, and a crowned cap on my head, and 
see if I can want promotion. (Exit. 

Bacon. Some fiend or ghost haunt on thy 
weary steps, 
Until they do' transport thee quick to hell: 



For Bacon shall have never merry day, 
To lose the fame and honour of his Head. 

(Exit. 

* * * * 

Enter BACON with FRIAR BUNGAY 

to his cell. 
Bun. What means the friar that frolicked it 
of late, 
To sit as melancholy in his cell, 
As if he had neither lost nor won to-day? 

Bacon. Ah, Bungay, my Brazen Head is 
spoil'd, 
My glory gone, my seven years' study lost! 
The fame of Bacon bruited through the world, 
Shall end and perish with this deep disgrace. 
Bun. Bacon hath built foundation of his 
fame. 
So surely on the wings of true report. 
With acting strange and uncouth miracles. 
As this cannot infringe what he deserves. 

Bacon. Bungay, sit down, for my prospective 
skill, 
I find this day shall fall out ominous. 
Some deadly act shall 'tide me ere I sleep; 
But what and wherein little can I guess. 

Bun. My mind is heavy, whatsoe'er shall 
hap. (Knock. 

Bacon. Who's that knocks? 
Bun. Two scholars that desire to speak with 
you. 

Bacon. Bid them come in. 
Enter two SCHOLARS, sons to Lambert 
and Serlsby. 
Now, my youths, what would you have? 

First Scho. Sir, we are Suffolk men, and 
neighboring friends, 
Our fathers in their countries lusty squires: 



Their lands adjoin; in Cratfield mine doth dwell, 
And his in Laxfield. We are college mates, 
Sworn brothers, as our fathers live as friends. 

Bacon. To what end is all this? 

Second Scho. Hearing your worship kept 

within your cell 

A glass prospective, wherein men might see. 

What so their thoughts, or hearts' desire could 

wish, 

We come to know how that our fathers fare. 

Bacon. My glass is free for every honest man. 
* « * * 

(He breaks his glass.) 
Bun. What means learn'd Bacon thus to 

break his glass? 
Bacon. I tell thee, Bungay, it repents me sore, 
That ever Bacon meddled in this art. 
The hours I have spent in pyromantic spells. 
The fearful tossing in the latest night 
Of papers full of necromantic charms. 
Conjuring and adjuring devils and fiends. 
With stole and albe, and strange pentageron; 
The wresting of the holy name of God, 
As Sother, Eloim, and Adonai. 
Alpha, Manoth, and Tetragrammaton, 
With praying to the five-fold powers of heaven, 
Are instances that Bacon must be damn'd. 
For using devils to countervail his God. 

Yet, Bacon, cheer thee, drown not in despair. 
Sins have their salves, repentance can do much : 
Think Mercy sits where Justice holds her seat. 
And from those wounds those bloody Jews did 

pierce. 
Which by thy magic oft did bleed afresh. 
From thence for thee the dew of mercy drops, 
To wash the wrath of high Jehovah's ire, 
And make thee as a new-born babe from sin. 
Bungay, Til spend the remnant of my life 



In pure devotion, praying to my God, 
That he would save what Bacon vainly lost. 

* * * * (Exeunt. 

Hen. But why stands friar Bacon here so mute? 

Bacon. Repentant for the follies of my youth, 
That magic's secret mysteries misled. 
And joyful that this royal marriage 
Portends such bliss unto this matchless realm. 

Hen. Why, Bacon, 
What strange event shall happen to this land? 
Or what shall grow from Edward and his queen? 

Bacon. I find by deep prescience of mine art. 
Which once I tempered in my secret cell. 
That here where Brute did build his Troynovant, 
From forth the royal garden of a king, 
Shall flourish out so rich and fair a bud, 
Whose brightness shall deface proud Phoebus' 

flower, 
And over-shadow Albion with her leaves. 
Till then, Mars shall be master of the field. 
But then the stormy threats of wars shall cease : 
The horse shall stamp as careless of the pike, 
Drums shall be turn'd to timbrels of delight; 
With wealthy favours plenty shall enrich 
The strond that gladded wandering Brute to see, 
And peace from heaven shall harbour in these 

leaves. 
That gorgeous beautify this matchless flower. 
Apollo's heliotropion then shall stoop, 
And Venus' hyacinth shall vail her top; 
Juno shall shut her gilliflowers up. 
And Pallas' bay shall 'bash her brightest green; 
Ceres' carnation in consort with those, 
Shall stoop and wonder at Diana's rose. 



741 St. Nicholas Avenue 

New York, February 24, 1921 B. B. 



SHAKESPEARE'S CONNECTION WITH THE 
INNS OF COURT 

It is pleasant to know that two of Shakespeare's come- 
dies were performed at the famous Inns of Court — The 
Comedy of Errors at Grays Inn on December 28, 1594, 
and Twelth Night in the Middle Temple Hall February, 
1601. 

John Manningham, a student in the Middle Temple, 
has written the following in his table-book, 2 Febr., 
1601 : ' ' At our feast wee had a play called Twelve Night, 
or what you will, much like the commedy of errores, or 
Menechmi in Plautis, but most like and neere to that in 
Italian called Inganni. A good practice in it to make the 
steward believe his lady widdowe was in love with him, 
by counterfayting a letter as from his lady, in generall 
termes, tellijig him what she liked best in him, and pre- 
scribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c., and 
then when he came to practice making him believe they 
took him to be mad." 

In the same diary, Manningham gives an anecdote 
about Shakespeare which w^as related to him by a Mr. 
Curie} 

In the Pension Booh of Grays Inn, I find on the 12tli of 
June, 1616, p. 221: "Mr. Auditor Curie being admitted 
of the howse is caled an Ancient & to have place above 
all the Ancients." And on 21 Oct., 1618: ''Mr. Auditor 
Curie and Mr. (lulson called to the Bench.'"" 

Some one has said, "Laughter is only the bright side 
of a tear," and I have thought Shakespeare may have 
found in Grays Inn a model for his mad Malvolio. Mr. 

iSep Shakespeare's Century of I'raise, 2ii(l EcL, p. 45. 
^Il>i(l, p. 232. 

1 



Fletcher, Editor of the Pension Book of Grays Inn, p. 
100, has this foot note relating to the butler, John Som- 
erscales, in 1593: 

''Somerseales went out of his mind. He was sent to 
Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam) and there maintained at 
the expense of the Society." Shakespeare was living 
in Bishopsgate ahout this time, we are told, and Bedlam 
was in Bishopsgate ward. It is my belief the poet some- 
times visited this hospital and studied the different 
phases of madness. Else how could he have given us 
such a truthful delineation of mental abberation as we 
find in the fair Ophelia, in "Poor Tom's-a-cold," and in 
Kiuij hear? If, as I believe, Bacon befriended the poet, 
he would have known all about Somerscales; and, as 
Bacon took a sympathetic interest in the poor butler, 
perhaps Shakespeare would drop in to see him now and 
then and report to Bacon how he was getting on. At the 
Pension 14 May, 35 Eliz: It was: 

"Ordryd that John Somerscales the pune butler which 
is now visyted with sicness shalbe wekely allowed v^ 
by the weke during hys sickness to be payd hym by the 
Steward out of tliadmyttance money."^ 

And: 

1594 [31 Jan.] ''At the same pencion yt ys orderyd & 
agreed that Anthony Catmer shall serve in the 
Buttrie as Butler in the stead of John Somerscales 
& for hym and shall have & collect to thuse of the 
sayd Anthony soch fees as wer due & accustomyd 
to be payd to the said Somerscales. And thereof 
shall paye to the sayd Somerscales yearly duringe 
hys lunacy iii'' vi^ viii"^. And yt ys lykewyse or- 
deryd that the said Somerscales shall have vi" xiii' 
iiii"^ of the stocke of the howse for this yeare. And 

ilhid. p. 100. 



yt Ys further in the sayd pencion agreed that yf yt 
shall please God at any tyme hereafter to restore 
the sayd John Somerscales to hys perfect sence & 
memorye agayne that then the said John yf he 
shall lyke thereof shall & may com & execute hys 
]3]ace agayne in the buttrye & shall have soch fees 
and oonunodvties as heretofore he hath had.'" 

I know it is mere conjecture on my part that Shakes- 
peare took this poor porter's case to illustrate a pre- 
tended madness in Malvolio. Among Bacon's accounts 
for 1602-1605 we find: 

''Payde the 26th of Feb: 1602 unto Mr. Parrett the 
Keper of Bethelem for keepinge of John Somerscales 
from the 6 of November unto the dale aforesaid beinge 
16 weekes 2 15 10.'" 

So I imagine the unfortunate man never recovered his 
mind. 

Some years ago I maintained that Shakespeare found 
the source of his plot for Love's Labors Lost at Grays 
Inn. And I still feel thoroughly convinced that he did. 
Queen Elizabeth's aversion to matrimony is well known, 
also that anecdote of her when she said to Bishop Whit- 
gift she ''liked him the better because he was not mar- 
ried," and his answer, ''Madame, I like you the worse 
for the same reason." Bishop Whitgift had been Fran- 
cis Bacon's tutor at Cambridge, and in May, 1593, the 
Venus and Adonis year, he became a member of Grays 
Inn. It has been said no source of the plot of Love's 
Labors Lost has been discovered, so I will give here what 
I think inspired it. Love's Labours Lost was the first 
play to appear with Shakespeare's name printed on the 
title page. It was dated 1598 and called: 

Ubid. p. 102. 

2 Pension Book. p. 400. 



A PLEASANT, CONCEITED COMEDIE CALLED 
LOVE'S LABOURS LOST. AS IT WAS PER- 
FORMED BEFORE HER HIGHNESS THIS 
LAST CHRISTMAS. NEWLY CORRECTED 
AND AUGMENTED BY W. SHAKESPERE. IM- 
PRINTED AT LONDON BY W. W. FOR CUT- 
BERT BURBY, 1598. 

As New Year's Day always fell upon March 25tli at 
that period, the new statutes made for Grays Inn by 
Elizabeth in 1598 would have given plenty of time before 
Christmas for Shakespeare to write this parody on them. 
The Queen's statutes must have created much merriment 
among the young gentlemen of Grays Inn and great 
anxiety in the lower quarters among the ' 'meaner sort,'^ 
as the following illustration will prove : 

1598 PENSION 15th Nov : 40 Eliz : Present :— BRO- 
GRAVE, BACON, STANHOPE, HALES, FUL- 
LER, PELHAM, BETTENHAM, LANY, 
NIGHTINGALE, BARKER, GERRARD, BRAC- 
KIN, WILBRAHAM and ELLIS. 

"It is also at the present pencon agreed that the 
Reader in Divinitie to be chosen shalbee a man un- 
married & having noe ecclesiasticall livinge other 
than a prebend without cure of soules nor Reader- 
shippe in any other place & shall kepe the same 
place so longe as hee shall continewe unmaried & 
without beinge preferred to such ecclesiasticall 
livinge or other Readershippe & no longer. And 
that hee bee not further charged with reading than 
twice in the weeke savinge in the weeke wherein 
there is Communion." Pension Booh Grays Inn,. 
p. 139. 



And further: 
1598 PENSION 7tli Feb: 41 Eliz: Present :~BEO- 
GEAVE, HESKETH, BACON, WHINKINS, 
POOLEY, FULLER, PELHAM, LANY, NIGHT- 
INGALE, BETTENHAM, BARKER, PEPPER, 
GERRARD, BRAKINE, CALFIELD, WILBRA- 
HAM, ELLIS. 

"At this pencion Mr. Shaxton is elected 
Preacher or Divinytie Reader to this Societie so 
that hee will accept the same under the Rules and 
condicons in that hehalfe heretofore agreed uppon 
by pencon viz: not to bee capable thereof if hee 
bee married or have smj other ecclesiasticall living 
with cure of soules & thoughe not beinge soe att 
the time of his eleccon not to continew^e soe longer 
then as hee S'hall remaine unmaried & without 
such ecclesiasticall livinge as aforesaid. And if 
that Mr. Shaxton shall not like to accept the same 
place under tlies condicons then is Mr. Fenton 
elected Preacher to this Societie so that he will 
also accept & continewe the same under the same 
condicons. And if hee shall not like to accept of 
the place in such manner & under such condicons 
then is Mr. Heron elected Preacher or Divinitie 
Reader to this Society under the same rules & 
condicons if he will soe accept & continewe in the 
same. And it is further agreed that Mr. Shaxton^ 
doe deliver his resolute answer of his acceptinge 
or refusall of this place before the first Mondaye 
in Lent next & if hee shall refuse the place that 
then Mr. Fenton doe deliver his answere therein 
before the third Mondaye in Lent & upon his re- 
fusall that Mr. Heron doe therein deliver his reso- 



lute answere before the fifth Monclaye in Lent 
next." Ibid., pp. 140-141. 

The Ed. of the Pension Book says in a note : 

''Apparently Mr. Shaxton did not accept the condi- 
tions laid down — conditions which suggest that the 
Queen's well-known prejudice in favour of the celibacy 
of the clergy was shared by the Benchers. Koger Fen- 
ton, who was appointed, accepted the conditions, but 
broke at least one of them, for he had conjointly with his 
preachership, first the rectory of St. Benet's Sherehog 
(1603-6), and then the vicerage of Chig^vell, Essex (1606- 
15). Shortly after his appointment he was elected fellow 
of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He was one of the trans- 
lators who produced the Authorized Version of the 
Bible, and is said to have been a popular preacher. He 
published a 'Treatise on Usurie,' in three books, and 
many sermons. His successor at Chigwell, in referring 
to him, wrote of 'those Grayes Inne whose hearts bled 
through their eyes when they saw him dead.' He did 
not take the degree of Doctor till a year or two before 
his death in 1615-16." Ibid., p. 140. 

From Gorhambury, Francis Bacon writes to Sir 
Michael Hicks, 27 Aug., 1610: "I heartily wish I had 
your company here at my mother's funeral. ... I 
dare promise you a good sermon to be made by Mr. 
Fenton, the preacher of Grays Inn ; for he never maketh 
other." Spedding's Letters and Life, IV, p. 217. I be- 
live Bacon helped Fenton in his "Treatise on Usurie." 

To return to Love's Labours Lost. Shakespeare's 
patron, the Earl of Southampton, secretly married about 
this time, and when the Queen learned it she had the 
young lady sent to the Fleet, and the Earl also impris- 
oned. In 1()()4 Southampton had this play performed be- 
fore Queen Anne. 



To me the following* from Love's Labors Lost illus- 
trates how the gentlemen of Grays Inn took the Queen's 

statutes : 

ACT I — 8('ENE 1. Navarre. .1 J^aik, irith a Palace 

in it 

Enter the King. Bieon, Longaville and Dumain. 

King. . . . Therefore, brave conquerors! — for so 
you are, 
That war against your own alfeetions. 
And the huge army of the world's desires, — 
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force ; 
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world; 
Our court shall be a little Academe, 
Still. and contemplative in living art. 
You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, 
Have sworn for three years' term to live with me. 
My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes. 
That are recorded in this schedule here: 
Your oath« are past and now subscribe your names. . . . 

Biron. I can but say their protestation over. 
So much, dear liege, I have already sworn, 
That is. To live and study here three years. 
But there are other strict observances: 
As, not to see a woman in that term; 
AVhich, I hope well, is not enrolled there. . . . 

. . . But Biron consents to sign and says: 

Biron. Give me the paper, let me read the same, 
And to the strictest decrees I'll sign my name. 

King. How well this yielding rescues thee from shame : 

Biron. [Reads.'] 

Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my 
court — 
Hath this been proclaim'd? 

Long. Four days ago. 



Biron. Let's see the penalty. [Reads.] 

— On pain of losing her tongue. — 
Who devis'd this penalty? 

Long. Marry, that did I. 

Biron. Sweet lord, and why! 

Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty, 

Biron. A dangerous law against gentility. 

[Reads.] 

Item, if any man he seen to talk ivith a ivoman within 
the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame 
as the rest of the court shall possibly devise. — 
This article, my liege, yourself must break ; 
For, well you know, here comes in embassy 
The French king 's daughter, with yourself to speak . . . 

King. ^Ye must, of force, dispense with this decree ; 
She must lie here on mere necessity. 

Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn 

Three thousand times within this three years' space: 
For every man with his affects is born ; 

Not by might master 'd, but by special grace. 
If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, 
I am forsworn on mere necessity. — 
So to the laws at large I write my name : [Subscribes. 

And he that breaks them in the least degree, 
Stands in attainder of eternal shame : 

Suggestions are to others, as to me; 
But, I believe, although I seem so loth : 
I am the last that will last keep his oath. 
But is there no quick recreation granted? 

King, Ay, that there is ; our court, you know, is haunted 

With a refined traveller of Spain ; 
A man in all the world's new fashion planted, 

That hath a mint of phrases in his brain: 
One whom the music of his own vain tongue 



Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony; 
A man of complements, whom right and wrong 

Have chose as umpire of their mutiny : 
This child of fancy, that Armado hight, 

For interim to our studies, shall relate, 
In high-born words, the worth of many a knight 

From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate. 
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I; 
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie. 
And I will use him for my minstrelsy. 

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight 
A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight. 

Long. Costard, the swain, and he, shall be our sport; 
And, so to study, three years is but short. 

Enter Dull, unth a letter, and Costaed 

Dull. Which is the duke's own person? 

Biron. This fellow; What wouldst? 

Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his 
grace's th-arborough : but I would see his own person in 
flesh and blood. 

Biron. This is he. 

Dull. Signior Arme — Arme — commends you. 
There's villainy abroad; this letter will tell you more. 

Cost. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. 

King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. 

Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for 
high words. 

Long. A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us 
patience ! 

Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing? 

Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; 
or to forbear both. 

Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause 
to climb in the merriness. 



Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenet- 
ta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner. 

Biron. In what manner? 

Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those 
three: I was seen with her in the manorhouse, sitting 
with her upon the form, and taken following her into the 
park; which, put together, is in manner and form follow- 
ing. Now, sir, for the manner, — it is the manner of a 
man to speak to a woman : for the form, — in some form. 

Biron. For the following, sir ? 

Cost. As it shall follow in my correction; 
And God defend the right! 

King. Will you hear this letter with attention! 

Biron. As we would hear an oracle. 

Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after 
the flesh. 

King. [Reads.'] "Great deputy, the ivelMn's vice- 
gerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's 
God, and body's fostering patron, — 

Cost. Not a word of Costard yet. 

King. "So it is, — 

Cost. It may be so : but if he say it is so, he is, in telling- 
true, but so. 

King. Peace! 

Cost, — ^^be to me, and every man that dares not fight ! 

King. No words : 

Cost. — Of other men's secrets, I beseech you. 

King. "So it is, besieged ivith sable-coloured melan- 
choly, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the 
most ivholesome physic of thy health-giving air: and, as I 
uyn a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time ivhenf 
About the sixth hour; tuhen beasts most graze, birds best 
peck, and men sit doivn to that nourishment ivhich is 
ccdled supper. So much for the time tchen: Now for the 

10 



ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is 
ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I 
mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposter- 
ous event, that draweth from my snoiu-white pen the 
ebon-coloured ink, ivhich here thou viewest, beholdest, 
surveyest, or seest : But to the place where, — It standeth 
north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy 
curious-knotted garden. There did I see that low-spirited 
sivain, that base minnow of thy mirth. 

Cost. Me? 

King. — ''that unlette'd small-knowing soul. 

Cost. Me? 

King. " — that shalloiv vassal. 

Cost, saw mel 

Kill!/. — "irJiicJi as I rciiiciiiher, Jiifjh Costard. 

Cost. me ! 

King. — ''sorted, and consorted, contrary to thy estab- 
lished proclaimed edict and continent canon, with — ivith, 
— with — but with this I passion to say ivherewith. 

Cost. With a wench. 

King. — "ivith a child of our grandmother Eve, a fe- 
male; or, for thy more siveet understanding, a ivoman. 
Him I {as my ever esteemed duty pricks me on) have 
sent to thee, to receive the m.eed of punishment, by thy 
sweet grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, 
carriage, bearing, and estimation. 

Bull. Me, an't shall please you; I am Antony Dull. 

King. "For Jaquenetta {so is the weaker vesser called, 
ivhich I apprehend with the aforesaid swain) I keep her 
as a vessel of thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy 
siveet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compli- 
ments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty, 

Don Adkiano de Aemado.'' 

11 I 



Biron. This is not so well as I looked for, but the best 
that ever I heard. 

King, Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what 
say you to this? 

Cost. Sir, I confess the wench. 

King. Did you hear the proclamation? 

Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of 
the marking of it. 

King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be 
taken with a wench. 

Cost. I was taken with none, sir; I was taken with a 
damosel. 

King. Well, it was proclaimed damosel. 

Cost. This was no damosel, neither, sir; she was a 
virgin. 

King. It is so varied too ; for it was proclaimed virgin. 

Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken 
with a maid. 

King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. 

Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir. 

King. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: You shall 
fast a week with bran and water. 

Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and por- 
ridge. 

King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper, — 
My lord Biron, see him deliver 'd o'er. — 
And go we, lords, to put in practice, that 

Which each to other hath so strongly sworn. — 

[Exeunt Kixg, Longaville, and Dumain. 

Biron. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, 

These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. 
Sirrah, come on. 

Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is, I was 
taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and 

12 



therefore, Welcome the sour ciij^ of prosperity! Afflic- 
tion rnay one day smile again, and until then, Sit down, 
Sorrow 1 

"We have in this first act, it seems to me, observed the 
effect of Elizabeth's edict on the students of Grays Inn, 
but the following from the Pension Book proves that the 
'' Master Butler and the Master Cooke" won out, better 
than the "Officers of the house." 

1599 PENSION 10th June, 41 Eliz : 

"It is ordered that from henceforth none of the 
officers of this house shall keepe or enjoye his office 
any longer than they shall keep themselves sole 
and unmaried exceptinge the stuard the cliiefe 
Butler and the chief Cooke." p. 142. 

1602 PENSION 20th Oct: 44 Eliz: Present:— PEE- 
PER, BPOaRAVE, HESKETH, BAC^ON, W^HIS- 
KINS, FULLER, NIGHTINGALE, BRAKIN. 
GOLDSMITH, ALTHAM, CHA WORTH. 

"elohn Guy is admitted into the office of the 
paniarman of this house notwithstanding that hee 
bee now maried by reason that hee was maried 
before the order was made against inferior officers 
mariages in this house & therefore hee havinge 
served xii yeares painefullye he is admitted to the 
said office, the said former order notwithstand- 
inge." Ibid., p. 159. 

Although Biron said, "These oaths and laws will prove 
an idle scorn," they lingered on. In 1612 we see the fol- 
lowing in the Pension Book: 

1612 "None of the said officers or servitors nowe un- 
maried or which hereafter shalbee chosen, except 
the Steward, chiefe Butler & chief cooke, shall con- 

13 



tinewe his place longer then hee shall live sole and 
nnmaried." Ibid., p. 199. 

Years of study have taught me it is incredable Bacon 
and Shakespeare should not have known each other, and 
that nowhere else could the poet have gained in so short 
a time his knowledge of court manners and law as in the 
Inns of Court, where all the courtly graces were prac- 
ticed and where the poet must have had free access. Sir 
George Buc, the Master of the Revels, who licensed some 
of Shakespeare's plays, had been a member of the Mid- 
dle Temple, where Twelfth Night was performed Feb- 
ruary 2, 1601. Sir George Buc, writing of the "Colleges 
of London," 1612, has this to say of the Inner Temple 
ensign : 

''But, if the fellows and gentlemen of the Inner Temple 
have taken for the device or ensign of their college, a 
Pegasus, or flying horse, sables or gules, upon a shield 
Or, as I hear that they did in the reign of the late queen 
of immortal memory, then they are already fairly armed. 
And, because the utter-Temple neither is, nor was ever 
any college or society of students, and therefore not to 
be considered here, I will leave the choice of either of 
these old devices and ensigns to the gentlemen of the 
Middle Temple, they not having as yet, to my knowledge, 
chosen or appropriated any ensign to their society or 
college ; to whom, and to their house and studies, I wish 
all honour and prosperity, for my particular obligation, 
having been sometimes a fellow and student (or, to con- 
fess a truth, a truant,) in that most honourable house." 
Pearce's Inns of Court, p. 274. 

I believe the shield of Pegasus for the Inner Temple 
was inaugiiirated in 15()1 in the iiias(iue of PahipJiilos. 

14 



Elizabeth, the "Fairie Queen," seems to have inspired, 
these ardent youths with more liking for poetr}^ than for 
law. Hence the winged Horse of the Muses for their coat 
armor or device. 

Here I will digress a bit to ask if it is not probable 
Shakespeare learned from the herald, William Segar, 
how to make ''Imprisses" when, in 1594, Segar made or 
caused to be made the ' ' sheilds and their Emprisses ' ' for 
the Gesta Grayorum? Take it all in all, Grays Inn was 
a splendid school for the poet to learn in. Mr. Stevens' 
late discovery among the Belvoir MSS. prompts this 
inquiry : 

**31. Martii. To Mr. Shakespeare in gold, about my 
Lord's impreso, XIIVS. To Eichard Burbage for paynt- 
ing & making yt, in gold XLIVS . . . iiili. viiis." 

It is to be hoped Shakespeare was paid more promptly 
for his service than Segar, for I find the following in the 
Pension Book of Grays Inn. p. Ill : 

1595 "It is further ordered at this pencion that vi'' 
claymed by one ]Mr. Segar the Quens servant 
for nyne sheilds & their emprisses be discharged 
in part of i^ayment whereof iii'' xvi^ viii'^ received 
for Mr. Terhinghams fyne admitted this pencion 
was delyvered over to Mr. Johnson for that use." 

The Editor adds : 

"This would he William Segar, who was during this 
reign successively Somerset herald and Norroy King-at- 
arms. Early in the next reign he became Garter King- 
at-arms, and in 1616 was knighted. In the following 
year he was admitted a member of the Inn." 

15 



1596 PENSION lltli Feb: 38 Eliz: Present— BRO- 
GRAVE, ANGER, POLEY, PELHAM, BET- 
TENHAM. LANY, NIGHTINGALE and BAR- 
KER. 

''It is ordered that there shall bee payd out of 
thadmittance money to Somersett the Herold 
reasidue of a debte due xP iiii''." Ibid., p. 113. 

Among those employed at Grays Inn I find John Buck, 
who may have been related to the Master of the Revels: 

1579 PENSION 6th July, 21 Eliz : Present :— BAR- 
TON, COLBIE, AUNGER, WHISKINS, YEL- 
VERTON, SNAGG, CARDINALL, BROGRAVE 
and KEMPE. 

''It is ordered that John Buck shall be allowed 
toe be in Davyes rome in the buttrye when the said 
Davy shall leave the same office." p. 39. 

Item for my (Buck's) charges of horse hire & 
other expenses in rydinge to Nonsuche her Maties 
Court wth aunswere to the Oounsailers towching 
Robin Hoods stake defacing viii'' vii'^ Jhid, 
p. 488. 
Also the following at a Pension held 28 May, 1599 : 

Mr. Buck's resignation of his office of Steward- 
ship of this house is accepted, and Mr. Richard 
Ockhold is chosen Steward. 
Sir George Buc succeeded his uncle, Edward Tilney, 
as Master of the Revels, in 1610. The Tilneys also were 
nuMubers of Grays Inn : 

1590 PENSION 19th May, 32 Eliz: Present: BRO- 
GRAVE, ANGER, CARDINALL, KEMP, DAN- 
lELL, STANHOPE, SPURLING, HALES, 
FULLER, BACON, ST. LEGER, LANCASTER, 
WADE. 

16 



"Mr. Jenour, Mr. Marsliall, Mr. Grene & Mr. 
Tyliiey called to the barr by Mr. Wade last reader 
are only allowed for utter-baristers of that call." 
Ibid., p. 87. 

1600 Mr. Robert Tilney the elder, having paid all his 

vacations and commons due by him to the Society, 

is restored to his former degree of ancienty. Ibid., 

p. 149. 

That Shakespeare was exceedingly fond of the Inns of 

Court, we see in his dramas, wherein he honors so many 

of their distinguished members. In the Gesta Grayonim 

we find a gentleman by the name of Markham was given 

the role of Lord Chamberlain of the Household. Pearce, 

in his able work, The Inns of Court and Chancery, p. 338, 

has this to say of one of this gentleman's ancestors, who 

also belonged to Grays Inn: 

"The next member of this society whose name is re- 
membered is John Markham, one of the Judges of the 
Common Pleas. Having filled the office of reader in 
Grays Inn, Markham was in the year 1391 called to the 
degree of a serjeant-at-law, and on the 7th July, 1397, 
was constituted one of the Justices of the Common Pleas, 
by King Eichard II. He was probably the father of 
John Markham, the Lord Chief Justice of England, who 
was distinguished for his honest and fearless opposition 
to the wishes of the crown. The younger Markham was 
also a member of this inn and his arms are yet preserved 
in the north-east window of the hall. On the 6th of Feb- 
ruary, A. D. 1444, in the 22 Henry VL, he was constituted 
one of the Justices ad Plac. coram Rege; and on the 13th 
May, A. D. 1462, was created Lord Chief Justice by King 
Edward IV. Stow informs us, 'And because that Sir 
John Markham, then Chief Justice, determined somewhat 



against the king's pleasure, that the offence done by Sir 
Thomas Cooke (who was arraigned at the Guildhall, on 
a vague charge of treason) was no treason, but mis- 
prison, the which was no desert of death, but to be fined 
at the king's pleasure; the Lord Eivers and the Duchess 
of Bedford, his wife, procured that he lost his office after- 
wards.' Lord Coke enumerates Sir John Markham as 
one of the famous and expert sages of the law in the time 
of Littleton." 

The Sir Thomas Cooke here mentioned was Francis 
Bacon's great-gTeat-great-grandfather, who was contempo- 
rary with Chief Justice William Gascoyne, whom Shake- 
speare brought into two of his dramas, namely, second part, 
Henry IV., Act V., and in Henr^j V. Sir William Gas- 
coyne was a student and reader of Grays Inn in 1398. 
Bacon's kinsman, Sir Thomas Cooke, was also a contem- 
pory of Sir John Fastolf of Caistor Castle, supposed by 
some to be "the old man of the castle," and of Boars 
Head fame in the Merry Wives of Wmdsor. Shakespeare 
gives us this fine picture of Judge Gascoyne: 

King Henry V. How might a Prince of my great hopes 
forget 
So great indignities you laid upon me? 
What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison 
The immediate heir of England! Was this easy? 
May this be wash'd in Lethe and forgotten? 

Chief Justice. I then did use the person of your father ; 
The image of his power lay then in me ! 
And in the administration of his law. 
Whiles I was busy for the Commonwealth, 
Your highness pleased to forget my place. 
The majesty and power of Law and Justice, 
The image of the King, whom I presented. 
And struck me in my very seat of judgment;. 

IS 



AVliereon, as an offender to yonr father, 

I gave bold way to my antliority, 

And did commit yon. If tlie deed were ill, 

Be yon contented, wearing now the garland, 

To ha\^e a son set yonr decrees at nought ; 

To pluck down justice from your awful bench ; 

To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword 

That guards the peace and safety of your person : 

Nay, more ; to spurn at your most royal image. 

And mock your workings in a second body. 

Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours, 

Be now the father and propose a son : 

Hear your own dignity so mucli profan'd, 

See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted, 

Behold yourself so by a son disdain 'd; 

And then imagine me taking your joart, 

And in your power soft silencing your son : 

After this cold considerence, sentence me; 

And as you are a King, speak in your state, 

What I have done that misbecame my place, 

My person, or my liege's sovereignty. 

King. You are right. Justice, and you weigh this well ; 
Therefore still bear the balance and the sword. 

The poet in Henry VIII, Act V., Scene 1, honors an- 
other Grays Inn lawyer, Thomas Cromwell, who served 
Cardinal Wolsey so faithfully: 

''0 Cromwell, Cromwell, 
Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal 
I serv'd my king, he would not in my age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies." 
Another Grays Inn man in the same drama is Stephen 
Gardiner, Bisho]) of Winchester and Lord High Chan- 
cellor of England, who became Cromwell's enemy. Pearce 
says: 

19 



''Cromwell was admitted of Gray's Inn, a. d. 1524; in 
ten years afterwards he was one of the ancients of the 
society; in the year 1535 he was advanced to the offices 
of Secretary to the Privy Council, Chancellor of the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, Master of the EoUs, and Lord 
Privy Seal. He was known to be favourably disposed 
towards the new doctrines: — 

Bishop Gardiner. Do I not know yon for a favourer 
Of this new sect? Ye are not sound. 

Cromwell. Not sound! 

Gar. Not sound, I say. 

Crom. Would you were half so honest ! 
Men's prayers then would see you, not their fears. 

Gar. I shall remember this bold language. 

Crom. Do. 

Remember your bold life, too. — Henry VIII., Act V,. 
Scene 1. Pearce's Hist. Inns of Court, p. 349. 

I firmly believe Shakespeare paid a compliment to the 
Bacon family by bringing into this same drama Sir Wil- 
liam Butts, the King's favorite physician. Sir William 
Butts married a kinswomen of Sir Nicholas Bacon's. 
The Dictionary of National Biography tells us from 1524 
to 1545 Dr. Butts "was constantly employed as physi- 
cian at the Court," and that "the King, his Queens, Anne 
Boleyn and Jane Seymour, the Princess Mary, after- 
wards Queen Mary, the King's natural son, Henry Fitz- 
roy, Duke of Richmond, Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke of 
Norfolk, Sir Thomas Lovell, George Boleyn, and Lord 
Rochford are all known to have been his patients." . . . 
Also that: "When Wolsey was in disgrace Butts tried to 
reconcile the King to him, and his interposition in favour 
of Archbishop Cranmer is well known to readers of 
Shakespeare." {Henry VIII, Act Y, Scene 2.) 

20 



Here is the passage: 

Enter Doctor Butts. 

Cran. So. 

Butts. This is a piece of malice. I am g'Lnd, 
I came this way so happily : The king 
Shall understand it presently. [Exit Butts. 

Cran. [Aside. 'T is Butts, 

The king's physician; as he pass'd along, 
How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me ! 
Pray heaven, he sound not my disgrace ! For certain, 
This is of purpose laid by some that hate me, 
(God turn their hearts! I never sought their malice,) 
To quench mine honour : they would shame to make me 
Wait else at door; a fellow-counsellor, 
Among boys, grooms, and lackeys. But their pleasures 
Must be fulfill 'd, and I attend with patience. 

Enter, at a window above, tJte King and Butts. 

Butts. I'll show your grace the strangest sight, — 

K. Hen. What 's that. Butts I 

Butts. I think your highness saw this many a day. 

A'. Hen. Body o' me, where is it? 

Butts. There, my lord : 

The high promotion of his grace of Canterbury ; 
Who holds his state at door, 'mongst pusuivants. 
Pages, and footboys. 

k. Hen. Ha ! 'Tis he, indeed : 

Is this the honour they do one another 
'T is well there's one above them yet. I had thought 
They had parted so much honesty among them, 
(At least, good manners,) as not thus to suffer 
A man of his place, and so near our favour, 
To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasures. 
And at the door too, like a post with packets. 
By holy Mary, Butts, there's knavery: 

21 



Let them aloue, and draw the curtain close ; 
We shall hear more anon. [Exeunt. ' 

The article in the D. N. B. on Dr. Butts says: ''He 
married Margaret Bacon, of Cambridgeshire, and left 
three sons: Sir William, of Thornage, Norfolk; Thomas, 
of Great Eiburgh, Norfolk, and Edmund, of Barrow, Suf- 
folk. . . . Edmund alone had issue, one daughter, 
who married Sir Nicholas Bacon, eldest son of Sir Nich- 
olas, keeper of the great seal." One of their sons was 
Sir Nathaniel Bacon, the Artist, who married Jane Lady 
Cornwallis, widow of Sir William Cornwallis, of Brome 
Hall. See the Private Correspondence of Jane Lady 
Coriiiralli.s, 1613-1()44, Lond. 1848. Anne, the daughter 
of Sir Nathaniel Bacon and Lady Jane, became the wife 
of • Sir Thomas Meautys, Bacon's friend and secretary, 
who erected the tomb to Bacon in St. Michael's Church, 
Gorhambury, and was buried there at his master's feet 
in 1649. The play of King Henry the Eighth was first 
published in the folio of 1623. It was being performed 
at the Globe in June, 1613, when that famous theatre was 
destroyed by fire. We learn the date of this event from 
two of Bacon's friends, Thomas Lorkin and Sir Henry 
Wotton. Lorkin writes to Sir Thomas Puckering, June, 
1613: "No longer since than yesterday, while Bourbage, 
his company, were acting at the Globe the play of Henry 
VIII., and there shooting of certain chambers in way of 
triumph, the fire catch 'd." And Wotton, writing to 
Bacon's half-nephew, Edward Bacon, on 6th July, 1613: 
"Now to let matters of State sleep, I will entertain you 
at the present with what happened this week at the Bank- 
side. The King's players had a new ^^/a?/, called All is 
True, representing some principal pieces of the reign of 
Henry the Eighth, which was set forth with many ex- 
traordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty, even to 



tlie matting of the stage ; the knights of the order, with 
their Georges and Garter, the guards with their embroid- 
ered coats and the like ; sufficient, in truth, within a while 
to make greatness very familiar, if not ridiculous. Now 
King Henry, making a mask at the Cardinal Wolsey's 
house, and certain cannons being shot otf at his entry, 
some of the paper, or other stuff wherewith one of them 
was stopped, did light on the thatch, where, being thought 
at first but an idle smoke, and their eyes being more at- 
tentive to the show, it kindled in^vardly, and ran round 
like a train, consuming, wdtliin less than an hour, the 
whole house to the very ground. This was the fatal 
period of that virtuous fabric, wherein yet nothing did 
perish but wood and straw, and a few forsaken cloaks; 
only one man had his breeches set on fire, that would 
perhaps have broiled him, if he had not, by the benefit of 
a provident wit, put it out with bottle ale." — Reliquiae 
Wottonianae. 

It will be noticed Lorkin spoke of ''Bourbage his com- 
pany" and that Wotton called the company ''the King's 
players." I call attention to this because there is no 
record of Shakespeare's ever being the manager of a 
company or the manager of a theatre, although that is 
the general belief . See Halliw^ell Phillips' Shahespeare's 
Tours, p. 9. 

Rowland White writing to Sir Robert Sydney, Janu- 
ary, 1597: "The quarrell of my Lord Southampton to 
Ambrose Willoiigliby, grew upon this. That he with Sir 
Walter Raivley, and Mr. Parker, being at Primero in the 
Presence Chamber, the Queen was gone to Bed; and he 
being there, as Squier for the Body, desired them to give 
over. Soon after he spake to them againe, that if they 
would not leave, he would call in the Gard to pull down 
the Bord, which Sir Walter B.aivley seeing, put up his 

23 



Money, and went his ways. But my Lord Southampton 
took Exceptions at liym, and told liym he would remem- 
ber yt, and so finding hym between the Tenis Court Wall, 
and the Garden, strooke hym, and Willoughby puld of 
some of his Lockes. ' ' Sydney Papers, 11.83. 

This is comic enough for the scene in Tivelfth Night, 
Act II, Scene III. 

Shakespeare, who must have heard much of Court gos- 
sip, may have utilized this scrap as follows: 

Enter Maria 

Mar. What a catterwauling do you keep here ! If 
my lady have not called up her steward, Malvolio, 
and bid him turn you out of doors, never trust me. 

Sir To. My lady's Cataian, we are politicians; 
Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsay, and lliree merry men he 
we. Am not I consanguineous? am not I of her 
blood? Tilly-valley, lady! There dwelt a man in 
Babylon, lady,Jady! 
. . . . [Singing. 

A Room in Olivia's House. 

Enter Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. 

Sir To. Approach, sir Andrew: not to be a-bed 
after midnight, is to be up betimes; and diluculo 
surgere, thou know'st, 

Sir And. Nay, by my troth, I know not : but I 
know, to be up late, is to be up late. 

Sir To. A false conclusion ; I hate it as an unfilled 
can : To be up after midnight, and to go to bed then 
is early : so that, to go to bed after midnight, is to go 
to bed betimes. Do not our lives consist of the four 
elements? 

Sir And. 'Faith, so they say; but, I think, it 
rather consists of eating and drinking. 
24 



Sir To. Thou art a scholar; let us therefore eat 
and drink. — Marian, I say I a stoop of wine. 

Enter Malyolio. 

MaL My masters, are you mad? or what are you? 
Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble 
like tinkers at this time of night? Do ye make an 
ale-house of my lady's house, that ye squeak out your 
coziers' catches without any mitigation or remorse 
of voice I Is there no respect of place, persons, nor 
time, in you? 

^Sir To. We did keep time, sir, in our catches. 
Sneck up I 

Mai. Sir Toby, I must be round with you. My 
lady bade me tell you, that, though she harbours 
you as her kinsman, she's nothing allied to your dis- 
orders. If you can separate yourself and your mis- 
demeanors, you are welcome to the house; if not, an 
it would please you to take leave of her, she is 
very willing to bid you farewell. 



25 



SHAKESPEAEE'S PLAYS CONTROLLED BY 
BACON'S FRIENDS 

It is a fact Shakespeare's plays were written exclu- 
sively for the Lord Chamberlain's company, and a fact 
also that his dramas continued under the control of that 
officer of the Court down to the time of King Charles I, 
or at any rate to 1662, while Sir Henry Herbert was Mas- 
ter of the Revels. On Shakespeare's arrival in London, 
Sir Henry Carey, Queen Elizabeth's cousin, was Lord 
Chamberlain and was the censor or licensor of all plays 
jjresented at Court. In stage matters his word was law. 
Now, how did Shakespeare, an unknown youth from 
Stratford-upou Avon, become one of this Lord Hunsdou's 
servants? As we have no personal proof to help us on 
this point, we must use discreet conjecture. My opinion 
is Bacon, more than any other man in London, could have 
helped Shakespeare to advancement in the theatrical 
world. Bacon's fondness for masques and revels is well 
known. He had in 1588 partly composed or "contrived" 
dunil) shows and acted in them before the Queen at Green- 
wich Palace. His first cousin, Sir Edward Hoby, had mar- 
ried Margaret Carey, the Lord Chamberlain's daughter. 
This fact alone would enable Bacon to recommend the poet 
to Lord Hnusdon's notice. 

Many of Bacon's friends were exceedingly fond of 
the drama, among them the Earls of Essex and South- 
ampton. The young Earl of Southampton, to whom 
Shakespeare dedicated his Venus and Adonis in 1593, 
and his Lucrece in 1594, was present at the Gesta Gray- 
orum and a member of Grays Inn. He was, on the death 
of his father, made a royal ward, and Bacon's uncle, Wil- 
liam Cecil (Lord Burghley), became his guardian. Is it 
not natural to assume Bacon was well acquainted with 
this young nobleman and that he could have introduced 

26 



Shakespeare to him? Lord Burghley had also been the 
guardian of the Earl of Essex, Southampton's dearest 
friend, who Avas very intimate with Anthony and Francis 
Bacon. 

My conjecture that Bacon could have helped Shakes- 
peare is therefore plausible. 

It was through the Lord Chamberlain's courtesy that 
the Comedy of Errors was performed at Grays Inn, as 
mentioned in the Gesta Grayorum, for Shakespeare was 
one of his servants. In fact all who helped Shakespeare 
most throughout his career in London were known to 
Bacon and were among his friends. Henry Carey (Lord 
ITundson and Lord Chamberlain), whose daughter be- 
came the wife of Bacon's first cousin. Sir Edward Hoby, 
was, as I said before, the censor and licensor of all plays 
performed at Court. The Lord Chamberlain's dep- 
uty, Edmund Tilney, the Master of the Revels, who 
was invested with despotic powers over everything 
that related to the stage, reigned from 1579 to 1610. 
After -the death of Henry Carey (first Lord Hundson) 
in 1596, he was succeeded by his son and heir. Sir George 
Carey, second Lord Hundson, who became Lord Cham- 
berlain,^ and Shakespeare's services were transferred to 
this Lord and his plays written for his company. Sir 
George Carey's residence in the Blackfriars adjoined the 
Blackfriars Theatre, then owned by James Burbage. 

Many of Shakespeare's plays passed through Tilney 's 
hands. On the death of Elizabeth, the Lord Chamber- 
lain's company became the ''King's players." Tilney 's 
nephew, George Buc, was knighted by James I in 1603, 
and succeeded his uncle as Master of the Revels, and 
Shakespeare's plays continued to be written for the Court 
players, and henceforth controlled by the Herberts. 

^Henry Brooke, seventh Lord Cobliam, held the office a few months 
only, before his death in April 1507. 



Sir George Buc had the pleasure of licensing some of 
them. See Notes and Queries, May, 1850, where it is said 
Sir George Buc dedicated a book of poems to Lady Bacon 
as follows: 

"To the vertuous Ladye and his most honored friend, 
the Lady Bacon, at Eedgrave, in Suffolk; wife to Sir 
Edmund Bacon, Prime Baronett of England." 

Sir Nicholas Bacon, not Sir Edmund, was the first 
Baronet of England. 

The Vice Chamberlain, Sir Thomas Heneage, who 
tried to help Bacon to the Solicitor's place in 1594, and 
who is mentioned in the Gesta Grayorum, had much to do 
tvith stage matters in that year. In May, 1594, when 
Shakespeare dedicated his Lucrece to the Earl of South- 
amjDton, Sir Thomas Heneage married the mother of this 
young Earl. So it will be seen in one way or another 
Shakespeare's poems as well as his dramas were always 
protected and patronized by Bacon's friends. 

In 1596, when the Shakespeare coat-of-arms was ap- 
plied for, Bacon's friend, the Earl of Essex, was Lord 
Marshall, and his friends, William Camden and William 
Dethic, were members of Grays Inn, and helped Shakes- 
peare to secure his coat armor, in spite of many objec- 
tions from other Heralds and the scandal that arose 
from it in other quarters. 

In 1613, when Shakespeare jourchased the Bhickfriars 
property, we find it had belonged to ''Mathie" Bacon of 
Holborn, London.^ 

A Mathias Bacon of Holborn, London, was admitted to 
Grays Inn March 1, 1596-7, sine fine.^ 

'HalHwell Philips' Outlines. 
"Foster's Ad. Regis., p. 91. 

28 



I find tlie following relating to this kinsman of 
Bacon's:^ 

"Yt is ordered that iii' iiii'^ bee payed to Matthew 
Bacon for wrytinge of a letter to my L. Keeper." 

"After my hartie comendacons. Beynge given to 
understand by this bearer my gentleman nsher that in 
makinge of a wall which you now have in hand between 
certain grounds of your owne & of his there will a pas- 
sage or comon way that leadeth from Holborne out into 
Grayes Inn fields & towards Islington, bee stopped upp : 
forasmuch as hee informeth mee that the same hath beene 
an usuall waye tyme out of minde & that hee should re- 
ceave verry greate preiudice by the shuttinge upp of the 
same at this present in regarde of certaine buildings 
which hee hath latelie sett up there : I have thought good 
in his behalf to move you that untill such time as you 
have heard his counsaill that may make his title & interest 
therein knowen unto you, & either make some frendlie 
agrement herein betwene you or otherwise certifie mee 
of the points of your difference : you would bee pleased 
to f orbeare the erectinge of the said w^all : In the which 
nothinge doubtinge your good regardes I leave you to 
the merciful keepinge of the Almihtie. From York 
flouse nere Charinge Crosse the 5th of Feby 1595. 

* ' Your verie lovinge f rende 

''John PUCKERINGE. 

"Postscript: If yt bee a comon passage time out of 
minde I know it will have that consideration thereof that 
is fytt, for the interest generall." 

The Lord Keeper Puckering owned a residence in 
Warwickshire and may have known the poet. 

^Pension Book of Grays Inn, p. 113. 

29 IT 



a 595 PENSION lOtli Feb : 38 Eliz : Present :— GRO- 
GRAVE, BACON, ANGER, POLEY, PELHAM, 
BETTENHAM, LANY, NIGHTINGALE and 
BARKER. 

"At this pencion yt ys ordered that a Ire shall 
be drawn & sent unto the Right Honourable the 
L. Keper in aunswer of his letter sent to the Read- 
ers of Grayes Inn signed under hands of the sayd 
Readers & that the copyes of hothe the sayd Ires 
shalbe entred in the Peneion Booke."^ 
This "Mathie," Mathias, or Matthew Bacon was a 
Seriviner at Grays Inn and perhaps belonged to the Seriv- 
iner's Company, who bought Bacon House in Noble 
Street, which had belonged to Francis Bacon's father, 
Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper. I think it plausible to 
conjecture he was one of Bacon's ''good pens" and that 
the manuscript of the Gesta Grayorum might have been 
written by him. See following letter to Anthony Bacon 
from Spedding's Letters and Life: 

"1 pray let me know what mine uncle Killigrew 
will do. For I must now be more careful of my 
credit than ever, since I receive so little thence 
where I deserved best. And to be plain with you, 
I mean even to make the best of those small things 
I have with as nmch expedition as may be w^ithout 
loss : and so sing a mass of requieyn I hope abroad ; 
for I know her Majesty's nature, that she neither 
caretli though the whole surname of the Bacons 
travelled, nor of the Cecils neither. 

''I have here an idle pen or two, specially one 
that was cozened, thinking to have gotten some 
money this term; I pray send me somewhat else 
for them to write out hesides your Irish collec- 
tion, which is almost done. . . . Thus I com- 
mend you to God's good preservation. From my 

Hhid., p. 112. 1595. 

30 



lodge at Twickenham Park, this 25th of January, 
1594. Yonr entire loving brother, 

''FR. BACON." 

This letter was written about Gesta Grayorum time. 

Ben Jonson was another of Bacon's "good pens." 
We are told that he and Michael Drayton, the poet, vis- 
ited Shakespeare in Stratford-on-Avon, a short time be- 
fore his death, and that they had a ''merry meeting, and 
it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a 
feavonr there contracted." 

A year before Shakespeare's death he is again con- 
nected with Matthew Bacon. It will be remembered, one 
Henry "Walker purchased from ]\latthew Bacon a house 
near the Blackfriars theatre, which he sold to Shake- 
speare for £140 in March, 1613. A few years ago Pro- 
fessor C. W. Wallace discovered three documents dated 
April 26, May 15, and May 22, 1615, dealing with a suit 
in Chancery, in which Shakespeare sought to recover 
from Matthew Bacon "possession of certain deeds per- 
taining to property within the precinct of the Black- 
friars. "^ 

So, from first to last we find Shakespeare connected by 
documentary history as well as by tradition to some one 
of Bacon's friends. 

Shakespeare died in April, 1616, and seven years after 
his death, in 1623, his works were given to the world in 
the fi^^•'t folio. This, next to the Bible, is our most prec- 
ious book. It was dedicated to two of Bacon's warmest 
friends, one of whom married his cousin. 

To William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Philip 
Herbert, Earl of Montgomery. William Earl of Pem- 
broke was Lord Chamberlain to King James I, and his 
brother Philip, Earl of Montgomery, succeeded him as 
Lord Chamberlain. Their kinsman, Sir Henry Herbert, 
became Master of the Revels on the death of Sir Geo. Buc 

-The Facts AJwut Shakespeare, by Nelson and Tborndike, p. 26, 1913. 
31 



in 1623. Sir Henr^' Herbert was a brother of the poet, 
George Herbert, to whom Bacon dedicated his "certaine 
Psalmes'' in 1625. 

Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, to whom jointly 
with his brother the first folio was dedicated, married, in 
1605, Susan Vere, Bacon's second cousin. He was fond 
of horses and dogs and cared more for sports than for 
books. King James I, bestowed many favors on him. 

The following extracts from a letter written to Bacon 
after his fall by Sir Thomas Meutys Jan. 3, 1621, refers 
to this Lord, Philip Herbert Earl of Montgomery: 
"May it please your Lordship, 

"This afternoon my Lady"^ found access to my 
Lord Markuis^ procured for her by my Lord Mont- 
gomery and Sir Edw^ard Sackville, who seemed to 
contend which of them should show most patience 
in waiting (which they did a whole afternoon) the 
opportunity to bring my Lord to his chamber, 
where my Lady attended him." 
And again: 

"I delivered your Lordship's to my Lord of 
Montgomery and Mr. Matthew, who w^as even then 
come to York-house to visit my Lady when he re- 
ceived the letter; and as soon as he had read it 
he said that he had rather your Lordship had sent 
him a challenge, and that it had been easier to 
answer than so noble and kind a letter. He intends 
to see your Lordship some time this week; and so 
doth Sir Edward Sackville, who is forward to make 
my Lady a way by the Prince, if your Lordship 
advise it."^ 
The following notes refer also to Philip Herbert, Earl 
of Montgomery. They were written by Bacon in 1623: 
"There is not an honester man in court than Mont- 
gomery." (January 2, 1623.)" 

'Bacon's wife. 

^Bnckiiighani. 

'Speddins's Baron's Lcitcrs and Life, pp. 324-32o. 

'IhUJ., Vol. VI r. p. 444. 

32 



Later on Bacon again writes : 

"Montgomery is an honest man and a good observer."' 
Sir Henry Herbert, kinsman to the "most noble and 
Incomparable Paire of Brethren, William Earle of Pem- 
broke, &c., Lorde Chamberlaine to the King's most Excel- 
lent Majesty. And Philip Earle of Montgomery, &c., 
Gentleman to his Majestys Bedchamber. Both knights 
01 the most Noble Order of the Garter and our Singular 
good Lords," to whom the first folio was dedicated, suc- 
ceeded Sir George Buc in 1623 as Master of the Revels 
although he had acted as Bug's deputy some time before 
this date, and reigned in that office about fifty years, 
Shakespeare's plays being under his control all that time. 
Charles Knight, in his Biography, says Shakespeare's 
"successors in the theatrical property of the Globe and 
Blackfriars found it to their interest to preserve the 
monopoly of their performance (which they had so long 
enjoyed) by a handsome gratuity to the Master of the 
Revels." There is this entry in the office book of Sir 
Henry Herbert, in 1627: "Received from Mr. Heming, in 
their company's name, to forbid the playing of Shake- 
speare's plays to the Red Bull Company, five pounds." 
This' proves Shakespeare's plays could not be performed 
without permission of Philip Herbert, Lord Chamberlain, 
or his deputy, Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the 
Revels. This old actor and manager, John Heminge, 
died in 1630 and was one of the editors of Shakespeare's 
dramas in the folio of 1623. Most people are under tlie 
impression that Shakespeare was the manager of a thea- 
tre, as well as the manager of a company of players, but 
the fact is he was never the manager of either. My own 
opinion is that John Heminge was the manager of Lei- 
cester's players and continued to be a manager up to the 
time of his death in 1()30. To date no mention of Shake- 
speare as having received money for plays or players has 
T>een discovered, John Heming was undoubtedly the man- 
ager and treasurer during all the time our poet was con- 

UhUl, p. 44G. 

33 



iiected with the stage. Seven years after Shakespeare's 
death John Heminge was permitted by the Lord Cliaiuber- 
lain, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, to publish the 
collected manuscripts of the great dramas, and he and Con- 
dell were allowed to dedicate them to this nobleman and 
his brother, Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery. In no 
other way could the manuscripts of these plays have been 
published, save by the courtesy of the Lord Chamberlain, 
who controlled them as well as the King's Players. A 
John Heminge was one of the trustees named in the deed 
of the Blackfriars' property, fold to Shakespeare in 1613. 
William Johnson was another of the trustees named in 
this deed. Could Henry Walker, ' ' citizein and minstrell ' ' 
of London, who sold the property to Shakespeare, have 
been the husband of Alice Burbage, sister of Richard, the 
first Hamlet? She married a Walker. See the Lord 
Treasurer Stanhope's ''accompte," 1613, p. 103.^ 

Thirty years ago Dr. Appleton Morgan wrote the 
following to refute Donnelly's "The Great Crypto- 
gram." 

WHY QUEEN ELIZABETH NEGLECTED 
BACON— THAT CAPIAS 
UTLEGATUM 

"... Nor does it happen to appear that, 
although Bacon was badly in debt in and about 
the year 1598, any of his debts were allowed 
to outlaw. They had all been paid or com- 
pounded for in 1601. All we know of this threat- 
ened writ of capias iitlegatum is contained in 
Bacon's letter to Cecil. And Bacon merely men- 
tioned it, as appears by the context, to show his 
kinsman how Coke took every opportunity of 
insulting him. Had Bacon been amenable to a 
writ to issue from the attorney-general of Eng- 
land, the suggestion by the mouth of the attor- 
ney-general himself would not have been an 

^Shakespeare's Century of Praise, 2nd Edi. 
34 



insult; but a threat, a word to tremble at, or to 
turn to stone before. Sir Edward Coke was not 
a man to threaten when he could perform. He 
performed : nor did he send threats in advance 
of his performance. It was, as we have said, 
an insulting reference to Bacon's early poverty, 
in the course of a little passage at arms between 
two men who perfectly understood their own 
and each other's rights, powers, and privileges. 
Bacon turned it, not with an "apothegm" (as he 
called his own ponderously witty speeches), but 
with a quiet, lawyer-like, and rather contemptu- 
ous admission, coupled with an allusion to 
Coke's utter impotence in the matter. And that 
was all there was of it! 

Had Bacon quitted England on account of his 
authorship of the Shakespeare plays, not only 
Elizabeth, Coke, the judges at Essex's trial who 
accepted Bacon's excuse for not taking a certain 
part in the prosecution, and the thirty or forty 
editors, publishers, printers, messengers, and go- 
betweens who printed that cipher-covering First 
' Folio Shakespeare — not only all these, but all 
England — would have known, about three hun- 
dred years ago the truth. . . . 

I am strongly inclined to think, therefore, 
that Mr. Spedding's incidental conjecture that 
Coke's mention of the capias utlegatum in the 
recontre with Bacon, was an allusion to Bacon's 
early poverty — is, undoubtedly, the fact of the 
matter. If otherwise, it would certainly be and 
remain a curiosity in the record that a future 
Lord Chancellor of England should have been 
at one time, in constructive breach of ban of the 
realm in whose affairs he was to sit in its highest 
judgment seat! — The Albany Law Journal, Vol. 
42, 1890. 



V 



Dorothy W^ccs a^ainjl ? ^\ohnion i-^a'mU 17 1 
Brynesof Severfamo 2 Bacon. 

'PonetlDcnccttjattermatGuid-hal, London, 3n t^c cafe of one r.^i:Eh(. 

Dakon. tKlII)Cre til Dcbt upon an £)bligation, iit)crctl)? Statute of 
tafiir^ luas p.eaDen, 3:t Uias faio bp P.jph» 3lf a" man Icin 100 1. fo;i a 
pear, anUtol)a1JC ioLf0jtl)Gufcofit. If tl)c £)bltgo: p^pa t\)Z lol. 
2oDap3bcfojcit Icnur, SEh^^t noes not maHctl)cObUn:atTonl?oiD, bc^- ^,^ 
taufc it tuas not corrupt, ^lout ff upon niabing the oblteatioir, ft fjao been ' f^' 
agrccD , tbat tfjc ten poimD Oiouiti t)>itic been pain i: ithia tbc tfmc , tljat /^^jf^ 
ftoiilu bfaf c been tifarp. IBccaufc be bas r ot tbc 1 00 h fo j tl)c tobole pear» ^ 

tSiHben tlic 1 ol. tcai to be patij tettbni tbe; rear, anu tjcrota tuas rt>ocH 
acco:Dmgli>» 

V^ \xsm agrccD,tbat if tbc 1lo:o maim \\u cliilai:!, bi? i^ iafran« 
-^cbifco. - 

Dorothy Watcs n^dlyi^ Brynes atSeverfim, Jlahf4f 

1 i^ an appeal of tb? tjcatb of ber ^^.lisbanD. 2Cbe SDcfcnnant tbere, iipoit ^'-'^rihcr^ 
-^tbeinoictmcmcntlnasfounD gniltp of SDan-flaugbter, 0nrj tbc ilTuc 
Itias if be UiU'D ti>c f^.isban^ oj not , ano tbc cbiocncc teas tcrp ftrong a* 
painft tbc SDefcnoant- ( icil. ) £Cb: begtiTni.tg of tbc quarrel U)a0, iD/t 
Monaay tbcrc, tbc pctfon tbat teas bill'D brat tbe noVo 2Dcfcttr>ant» ^Dn 
Tucfday, Wat5 in tb^SDcfcnuantsibop being a 55utcbcr , flurtcb bim oit 
tbc j]5orc. £).! Wednelday, Watts, and one Biflei toalUirtg bp tbC fljop, 
maoc fi iDjp moutb at tbc ^DefcnBant.- ^Elpoii Web tbc SDcfcnoant comco 
out of tbc fliop , toitb a Ojon fluo^.D bcbintj tbc bacfe of Warts , anD n')t^ 
bim a great CtroaK upon tDe calf of tiiclcgg, Uibcrcof beoiet), %\v^ tb^ 
Court DirccteD tbe 31urp to ftnD it murtben 

lohnfon againfi Bacon* 

I Ohnfon Of Grayes.JnnerecotfCrcU in Bcbtagainltr Bacon of Grays- Inne T/V/^p to afr.in 
upon a bonu of 400 U Mbcrc tbc conoitiontoas to falic barmlcffc, being ^""''^' 
nrurctpfojBacon* 0nt) Bacon ttjas outlalocb after Bt^JlJg^mcnt: 0nO a 
cap* utlnj^at. toa0DcUbcrcD to tbc febcriff in Court. :^nD nota Bacon 
bjougbt crroar* 0nti luoulo afoign errors toitbout prelDing bi'ttfelf in 
C'lcecution^ quod contra legem* 315ptb«^ Cicrfes, Cbat a man outlatocD 
map not taUc benefit of tbe 3latt), toitbout a fubmifoton to ft. 

36 



THE OEIGIN OF THE ''CAPIAS UTLEGATUM" 

INSULT OFFERED TO BACON BY QUEEN 

ELIZABETH'S ATTORNEY GENERAL, 

SIR EDA\ ARD COKE. 

Toulmin Smith said: "He ivJio unfolds to his felloiv- 
men one single truth that has heretofore laid hidden has 
not lived in vain." I may add especially if that truth is 
about Bacon . The fact I have discovered will at least 
estahlish what before was unknown to his biographers; 
and it is connected with William Johnson, the gentleman 
who personated the Lord Chancellor in the Gesta Gray- 
ovum. This William Johnson "of Staple Inn" was ad- 
mitted to Grays Inn in 1578. (See Foster's Regis, of 
Grays Inn, p. 52.) 

The discovered fact will also take the strongest prop 
from under Donnelly's cipher story in his Great Crypto- 
gram. To those unfamiliar with the Attorney General 
Cokes insult offered to Bacon in the Exchequer in 1601, 
and liow Bacon smarted under it, the following letter 
found by Murden in the Hatfield Collection, and first 
published by Birch will explain: 

To Mr. Secretary Cecil 

It may please your Honour, 

Because we live in an age, where every man's im- 
perfections is but another's fable; and that there fell 
out an accident in the Exchequer, which I know not how, 
nor how soon, may be traduced, though I dare trust 
rumour in it, except it be malicious, or extreme partial; 
I am bold now to possess your Honour, as one, that ever 



I found careful of my advancement, and yet more jealous 
of my wrongs, with the truth of that, which passed; de- 
ferring my farther request, untill I may attend your 
honour : and so I continue 

Your Honour's very humble 
and particularly bounden, 
Gray's-Inn, this 2-4th of April, 1601. 

Fk. Bacon. 

A true remembrance of the abuse I received of Mr. At- 
torney General publicly in the Exchequer the first 
day of term; for the truth ivhereof I refer myself to 
all that tvere present. 

1 moved to have a reseizure of the lands of Geo. Moore, 
a relapsed recusant, a fugitive, and a practising traytor; 
and shewed better matter for the Queen against the 
discharge by plea, which is ever with a salvo jure. And 
this I did in as gentle and reasonable terms as might be. 

Mr. Attorney kindled at it, and said, "Mr. Bacon, if 
you have any tooth against me, pluck it out; for it will 
do you more hurt, than all the teeth in your head will 
do you good." I answered coldly in these very words: 
"Mr. Attorney, I respect you: I fear you not: and the 
less you speak of your own greatness, the more I will 
think of it." 

He replied, "I think scorn to stand upon terms of 
greatness towards you, who are less than little ; less than 
the least;" and other such strange light terms he gave 
me, with that insultinii', which cannot be expressed. Here- 
with stirred, yet I said no more but this: "Mr. Attor- 
ney, do not depress me so far ; for I have been your better, 
and may be again, when it please the Queen." 

With this he spake, neither I nor himself could tell 
what, as if he had been born Attorney General; and 



in the end bade me not meddle with the Queen's business, 
but with mine own ; and that I was unsworn, &c. I told 
him, sworn or unsworn was all one to an honest man; 
and that I ever set my service tirst, and myself second; 
and wish'd to God, that he would do the like. 

Then he said, it were good to clap a cap. utlegatum 
upon my back! To which I only said he could not; and 
that he was at fault ; for he hunted upon an old scent. 

He gave me a number of disgracefull words besides; 
which I answered with silence, and shewing, that I was 
not moved with them." 

Bacon's answer to Coke: ''To which I only said he 
could not; and that he was at fault; for he hunted upon 
an old scent," haunted me for years. If he had said Coke 
'hunted upon a irroiu/ scent' I would have dismissed it 
without further thought. Bacon's words, like Ham- 
let's, were never wasted — he weighed them before he 
spoke. So I took up the thread where he dropped it and 
began the search for the truth. 

It seemed to me Coke was too good a lawyer to subject 
himself to a libel suit, and much as he hated Bacon he 
had not out of sheer malice invented the story, if there 
was one. Spedding thought Coke's insult referred to 
Bacon's arrest for debt in 1598, See his Letters and Life 
of Bacon, Vol. Ill, p. 3. 

If the reader will turn to Spedding's Letters and Life of 
Bacon, Vol. Ill, p. 42, he will find there a statement 
drawn up by Bacon in 1601 which relates to his indebted- 
ness to Nicholas Trott, who w^as made a barrister of 
Grays Inn July, 1584 — the same Trott who in 1588 as- 
sisted Bacon in the Misfortunes of Arthur, which they 
played before the Queen at her palace of Greenwich. 

In the above statement of Bacon's are these items: 

^'He [Trott] received about two years since of Mr. 

.39 



Johnson of Grays Inn, being my surety for 2001. prin- 
cipal. . . . 
He hatli now secnred unto him by mortgage of 

Twicknani Park 12591. 12s. 

Upon my Cousin Cook's band 2101. 

Upon Mr. Ed. Jones' band 2081. 

Upon my own band 2021. 

In the Gesta Grayomm this Mr. Ed. Jones was Secre- 
tary of State. He was ''a great translator of books" 
also. We see Bacon, like Shakespeare, uses the word 
hand for bond. See The Comedy of Errors, IV., 2. 
Adr. Tell me teas he arrested on a haiulf 
Dro. S. Not on a hand, hut on a stronger thing. 

"■Revealing dag through everg cranng peeps:'' 

And through the above cranny I hoped William John- 
son of Grays Inn might lead me to something in connec- 
tion with Bacon's debts and his arrest in 1598. The 
reader may smile when I say it took me twenty years 
to trace the mystery of the Capias Utlegatum. I exam- 
ined hundreds of musty old books and manuscripts in 
connection with my other researches, and in 1896 I found 
my "atom," which I hope the reader will not think I 
am making into a mountain. Mr. Gosse finely expresses 
it when he says: ''All critical work nowadays must be 
done on the principle of the coral insects. No one can 
hope to do more than to place his atom on the mass that 
those who preceded him have constructed." 

But to return to William Johnson who played the 
Lord Chancellor in the Gesta Grayomm. The following 
extracts relating to him have been taken from The Pen- 
sion Book of Grays Inn : 

40 



1591 PENSION 16tli June, 33 Eliz.: Present:— 
ANGER, WHISKINS, DANYELL, SPURLING, 
POLEY, FULLER, BACON, PELHAM, LAN- 
CASTER, SENTLEGER, BETTENHAM and 
LANY. 

Cotton, G., Mingay, Johnson, W., and Dolman, 
called to the Bar by Mr. Jermy Bettenham in 
August last past, are allowed and confirmed utter 
barristers, p. 93. 

In May 35 Eliza., 1593, he was "chosen of the graunde 
company." 7?>ic?, ^j. 100. 

1595 PENSION 11th Feb: 37 Eliz: Present:— BRO- 
GRAVE, ANGER, POOLEY, FULLER, LAN- 
CASTER, PELHAM, NIGHTINGALE. 

"It ys orderyd that' Mr. William Mills shalbe 
intreatyd to delyver unto Mr. Willm Johnson and 
Mr. Edward Morrys the some of one hundryd 
marks to be payd out & bestowyd upon the gentle- 
men for their sports & shewes this Shrovetyde at 
the court before the Queens Majestie 1 & the same 
hundryd marks to be payd agayne to the said Mr. 
Mills hys exec : or assigns before thend of the next 
term." Ibid, p. 107. 

The able editor of The Pension Book of Grays Inn has 
this foot note relating to the Gesta Grayorum: 

Note 1. — There has been a notable keeping of Christ- 
mas in 1594. On December 12th a Prince of Purpoole 
was elected, and an ambassador from the Inner Temple 
invited to his Court. On December 20th, the Prince 
(one Mr. Helmes) was duly enthroned, his champion 
riding into the hall and proclaiming his titles as Prince 
of Purpoole, Archduke of Stapulia and Bernardia, Duke 



of the High and Nether Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles' 
and Tottenham, Count Palatine of Bloomsbury and 
Clerkenwell, Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington, etc. 
Ou Holy Innocents' Day the ambassador of Templaria 
presented his credentials. But "then arose such a dis- 
cordered tumui t and crowd upon the stage that there was 
no opportunity to effect what was intended: there came 
so great a number of worshipful personages upon the 
stage that might not be displaced," that the performance 
was abandoned and the Temple ambassador retired in 
a huff, ''In regard whereof ... it was thought 
good not to offer anything of account, saving dancing 
and revelling with gentlewomen; and after such sports 
a Comedy of Errors (like to Plantns his Menechmus) 
was played by the players. So that night was begun 
and continued to the end in nothing but confusion and 
errors." On January 3rd the ambassador w^as again 
present, a Council was held, for which Spedding thinks 
Bacon wrote the speeches, and peace concluded with 
Templaria. But the crowning event in the reign of the 
Prince of Purpoole was the masque which he and his fol- 
lowers performed, by permission, before the Queen. 
'Twas a poor thing, but their own, and ''Her Majesty 
graced every one; particularly she thanked His High- 
ness for the good performance of all that was done; and 
wished that their sports had continued longer, for the 
pleasure she took therein ; which may appear hy her an- 
swer to the Courtiers that danced a measure immediately 
after the Masque was ended; saying, 'What! shall we 
have bread and cheese after a banquet!' " The masquers 
kissed hands, and Her Majesty said she was much be- 
holden to Gray's Inn "for that it did always study for 
some sports to present unto her." So says the Gesfa 
Grayorum; and, though it was not printed till 1688, one 



takes it for a genuine work of one of the masquers, not 
forgetting to appreciate the naive expression of a low 
esteem for the '^Comedy of Errors" and its author. 
Ibid, pp. 107-108. 

1595 PENSION 8th May, 37 Eliz: Present :—BRO- 
GRAVE, ANGER, POOLEY, FULLER, BACON, 
PELHAM, LANY, NIGHTINGALE and BAR- 
KER. 

''At this pencion it is ordred that every Reader 
of this house towards the charges of the shewes 
& desports before her Majestie at shrovetyde last 
past shall pay tenne shillings & evrye Auncient 
vis viiid & evrye utterbarester vs, evrye other 
gentleman of this societe iiiis before thend of this 
term whether they be in comons or lying in the 
house or about the same house & this collection 
to contynew tyll thend of the next terme & the 
house towards the aforesaid charges is to allowe 
out of the publique stock of the said house the 
some xxxli."^ 

1595 .... ''It is further ordered at this pencion 
that vili claymed by one Mr. Segar the Quens serv- 
ant^ for nyne sheilds' their emprisses be discharged 
in part of payment whereof iiili xvis viiid received 
for Mr. Terninghams fyne admitted this pencion 
was delyvered over to Mr. Johnson for that use." 
Note 1. — This would be William Segar, who was dur- 
ing this reign successively Somerset herald and Norroy 
King-at-arms. Early in the reign he became Garter 
King-at-arms, and in 1616 was knighted. In the following 
year he was admitted a member of the Inn. Ihid, p. 111. 

43 



1597 . . . . ''It is ordered that Mr. Laney shall 
pay unto Mr. Johnson out of the admittance money 
the sum of iiili viiis & xd in full discharge of all 
the charges remanent for the Christmas sports 
Ano34Eliz:Keg:" Ibid, -p. 129. 

We have now traced William Johnson of Grays Inn 
from May, 1591, to the 10th of November, 1597, and find 
him always connected with sj^orts, masques and plays 
and the admittance money for same. Therefore I do 
not think it too much of a conjecture to say I believe 
the money he lent Bacon was largely spent on these 
masques and revels at Grays Inn, of which Bacon was 
in his youth so fond. Laney, above mentioned, Avas the 
Pursnevant of Arms in the Oesta Grayorium. 

In Spedding's Letters and lAfe of Bacon, Vol. V., p. 86, 
Bacon recommends a Mr. Noy as a law reporter, and 
refers to him as "learned and diligent, and conversant 
in Reports and Records." This gentleman, afterwards 
Sir William Noy, became Attorney General to Charles I. 
And it was in his ''Reports and Cases taken in the Time 
of Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles, 
Collected and Reported by that learned Laivyer," etc. 
1656, that I found the source or origin of the Capias TJtla- 
gatum Coke would have clapped upon Bacon's back, and 
how William Johnson of Grays Inn was connected with 
it. Although I have had the title-page and the passage 
relating to "Johnson against Bacon" reproduced by 
photography (p. 36) I will (juote it here: "Johnson 
of Grays Inn recovered in debt against Bacon of Grays 
Inn upon a bond of 4001. Where the condition was to 
save harmlesse, being surety for Bacon. And Bacon 
was outlawed after Judgment: and a cap. utlegat. was 
delivered to the Sheriff in Court. And now Bacon 

44 



brought errour. And would assign errors without yield 
ing himself in Execution, quod contra legem. By the 
Clerks, that a man outlawed may not take benefit of the 
Law, without a submission to it." The question arises How 
did Bacon get out of this scrape?. I have made the fol- 
lowing note: "A barrister of Grays Inn was privileged 
from arrest," and signed it Kempe 1602, p. 424, but do not 
recollect where I found it ; but I have extracted the follow- 
ing from Mr. Fletcher's able Introduction to The Pension 
Book of Grays Inn, upon which I have so largely drawn for 
this work. 

P XLI The Benchers administrated their own local 
government. 

P XLI The Pension was also the police authority for 
the Inn. No Dogberry entered there. It was 
by the private servants of the Society that the 
courts were patrolled and the gates guarded. 
The Inns of Court were fully recognized as 
"priviledged and exempted places," and the 
Benchers as having within their precincts a 
special jurisdiction." 

And at a Pension 23 Jan., 1588: 

''It is also ordered that Mr. Dryver shall pay to Mr. 
Thurbaine for that he arested Mr. Thurbaine upon an 
action of the case for slaunder without the consent of 
the Reders that he satisfye Mr. Thurbaine all charges 
recompenced him by order of the court where the suit 
was had." Ibid., -p. 78. 

Showing Mr. Dryver had no right to arrest a member 
of Grays Inn without the "Reders' " consent. We now 
come to Bacon's letter complaining of his arrest in 1598 

45 



which was found in the Hatfield Collection by Murden, 
and printed first by Birch (1763). 

To Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great 
. Seal 

It may please your Lordship, 

I am to make humble complaint to your Lordship of 
some hard dealing offered me by one Sympson, a gold- 
smith, a man noted much, as I have heard, for extrem- 
ities and stoutness upon his purse : but yet I could 
scarcely have imagined, he would have dealt either so 
dishonestly towards myself, or so contemptuously 
towards her Majesty's service. For this Lombard (par- 
don me, I most humbly pray your Lordship, if being 
admonished by the street he dwells in, I give him that 
name) having me in bond for 300 1. principal, and I hav- 
ing the last term confessed the action, and by his full 
and direct consent, respited the satisfaction till the begin- 
ning of this term to come, without ever giving me warn- 
ing, either by letter or message, served an execution upon 
me, having trained me at such time, as I came from the 
Tower, where, Mr. Waad can witness, we attended a 
service of no mean importance. Neither would he so 
much as vouchsafe to come and speak with me to take 
any order in it, thought I sent for him divers times, and 
his house was just by; handling it as upon a despite, 
being a man I never provoked with a cross word, no nor 
with many delays. He would have urged it to have had 
me in prison; which he had done, had not Sheriff More, 
to whom I sent, gently recommended me to an handsome 
house in Coleman-street, where I am. Now because he 
will not treat with me, I am inforced humbly to desire 
your Lordship to send for him, according to your place, 

46 



to bring him to some reason ; and this forthwith, because 
I continue here to my farther discredit and inconvenience, 
and the trouble of the gentleman, with whom I am. I 
have an hundred pounds lying by me, which he may 
have, and the rest upon some reasonable time and se- 
curity; or, if need be, the whole; but with my more 
trouble. As for the contempt he hath offered, in regard 
her Majesty's service, to my understanding, carrieth a 
privilege eiindo et redeundo in meaner causes, much more 
in matters of this nature, especially in persons known 
to be qualified with that place and employment, which 
though unworthy, I am vouchsafed, I inforce nothing, 
thinking I have done my part, when I have made it 
known; and so leave it to your Lordship's honourable 
consideration. And so with signification of my humble 
duty, &c. 

His next letter (also found in the Hatfield Collection) 
is to his first cousin. Sir Robert Cecil, son of his Aunt 
Mildred Cooke, who was Lord Burghley's second wife. 
Sir Robert Cecil was Queen Elizabeth's Secretary from 
1596 to the end of her reign, 1603, and was reappointed 
by James I. 

To Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State. 
It may please your Honour, 

T humbly pray you to understand how badly I have 
been used by the inclosed, being a copy of a letter of 
complaint thereof, which I have written to the Lord 
Keeper. How sensitive you are of wrongs offered to 
your blood in my particular, I have had not long since 
experience. But herein I think your Honour will be 
doubly sensitive, in tenderness also of the indignity to 
her Majesty's service. For as for me, Mr. Sympson 
might have had me every day in London; and therefore 



to belay me, while lie knew I came from the Tower about 
her Majesty's special service, was to my understanding 
very bold. And two days before he brags he forbore 
me, because I dined with Sheriff More. So as with Mr. 
Sympson, examinations at the Tower are not so great 
a privilege, eimclo et redeundo, as Sheriff More's dinner. 
But this complaint I make in duty ; and to that end have 
also informed my Lord of Essex thereof; for otherwise 
his punishment will do me no good. 

So with signification of my humble duty, I commend 
your Honour to the divine preservation. 
From Coleman-street, this 24th of September [1598.] 
At your honourable command particularly, 

Fe. Bacon. 

I am inclined to think the following letter to Bacon's 
cousin, Cecil, although dated July, 1603, relates to the 
above arrest. It may please your good Lordship, 

In answer to your last letter, your money shall be 
ready before your day, principal, interest, and costs of 
suit. So the sheriff promised, when I released errors; 
and a Jew takes no more. The rest cannot be forgotten ; 
for I cannot forget your Lordship's dum memor ipse mei: 
and if there have been aliquid nimis, it shall be amended. 
And, to be plain with your Lordship, that will quicken 
me now, which slackened me before. Then I thought 
you might have had more use of me, than now, I suppose, 
you are like to have. Not but I think the impediment 
will be rather in my mind, than in the matter or times. 
But to do you service, I will come out of my religion at 
any time. 

For my knighthood, I wish the manner might be 
such, as might grace me, since the matter will not: I 
mean, that I might not be merely gregarious in a troop. 

48 



The coronation is at hand. It may please your Lord- 
ship to let me hear from you speedily. So I continue 
Your Lordship's ever much bounden, 

Fr. Bacon. 
From Gorhambury, this 16th of July, 1603. 



49 



FRANCIS BACON'S CONNECTION WITH WAR- 
WICKSHIRE AND THE FOREST OF ARDEN 

None of Bacon's biographers have connected him with 
Warwickshire or the Forest of Arden, where Shakespeare 
found : 

^^ Tongues in trees, hooks in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones and good in everything/' 

Yet here in the midst of this Forest, his maternal 
grandfather, Sir Anthony Cooke, the learned tutor to 
King Edward VI., owned one of the most ancient estates 
in all Warwickshire. It was near enough to Kenilworth 
Castle, given by Elizabeth to her favorite Robert Dudley, 
Earl of Leicester, for Sir Anthony Cooke and his family 
to attend without fatigue, the entertainment given to 
the Queen in the summer of 1575. I have no doubt young- 
Francis Bacon was there with his father. Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, Elizabeth's Lord, keeper of the Great Seal, his 
mother Lady Anne, and his aunts Lady Cecil, Lord Bur- 
leigh's wife, and Lady Russell, wife to Sir John Russell, 
as they were attached to the Court. Sir John Russell's sis- 
ter married Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who was 
the Earl of Leicester's brother. There are passages in the 
plays of Shakespeare which have led many to think that 
he was present at these grand sports and shewes, al- 
though only in his eleventh year. But a genius like 
Shakespeare would be wonderfully impressed and acute 
even at this age. There was a rustic wedding performed 
before the Queen at this time, which may have sown the 
seed in the poet's mind for the love scenes in As You 
Like It between Touchstone and Audrey. 

As for Francis Bacon he went abroad the very next 



year with Elizabeth's Eiiibassadore, Sir Amias Poiilet, 
to be bred a statesman, according to the wishes of his- 
father, whose favorite son he was. Born in 1560-1, he 
was now in his sixteenth year, and was accompanied 
abroad by a companion, a Mr. Duucombe. Young Fran- 
cis Bacon was "not bound to any vacations" either at, 
Cambridge or Grays Inn, on account of his health, which,, 
like his brother Anthony's, had always been delicate. 
This is another reason for thinking he was at Kenilworth 
in the summer of 1575, for I find he was out of Cam- 
bridge when the entertainment to the Queen took place. 
Elizabeth, who had known him from birth, would some- 
times call him her "young Lord-keeper," and be de- 
lighted to confer with him often alone. Like M(U)iiJ]ii(s, 
he could tell marvelous stories, I imagine, and I venture 
to say no princely child could be more courteous and 
polished in all her court than this son of Lady Anne 
Bacon's, who had been governess to King Edward VI. 
up to his seventh year. Under his mother's tuition he 
was able to enter Cambridge in April, 1573, at the age- 
of-twelve years and three months old. In June, 1575, he 
and his brother Anthony were admitted ancients to 
Grays Inn. Spedding says this was "a privilege to 
which they were entitled as the sons of a Judge." The 
following from the Pension Book of Grays Inn, 1576, 
is interesting: 

1576 PENSION 21st Nov: 15 Eliz. Present :—GER- 
RARD, BARTON, KYTCHIN, CHISNOLD, 
COLBYE, SHUTE, ANGER, WHISKINS, YEL- 
VERTON, SNAGG, CARDINALL and BRO- 
GRAVE. 

"It is ordered that Mr. Edward Bacon shalbe 
admitted in my Lorde Kepers chamlier in the- 

51 



absence of Mr. Nicholas Bacon his sonne & that 
Mr. Anthony shalbe admitted in the same chamber 
in the absence of Mr. Nathaniell Bacon." 

''It is forther ordered that all his sonnes now 
admitted of the honsse viz : — Nicholas, Nathaniell, 
Edward, Anthonye, & Francis shalbe of the 
graund company and not to be bound to any vaca- 
cions." p. 27. 
Bacon, who only "lived to study," was by his father's 

sudden death called back to England in March, 1578-9. 

As he had been left with little means, he took up his 

lodgings in Grays Inn and began the study of law as he 

himself tells us — to "study to live." 
The Pension Book of Grays Inn proves his health was 

still delicate in 1580: 

1580 "Mr. Francis Bacon in respect to his healthe is 
allowed to have the benefitt of a special admittance 
with all benefitts and p'rivileges to a speciall ad- 
mittance belongeng for the f yne of xP. ' ' p. 43. 
Let us now return to Bacon's connection with and his 
kinsmen in Warwickshire, where Shakespeare "warbled 
his wood-notes wild." I found the following interesting 
items relating to Bacon, in 1589, in Benjamin Bartlett's 
Manduessedum Bomanorum, p. 105: 

31 Elizabeth, Indenture between Sir Henry Goodere, 

1589, Feb. 20 Knt., of Polesworth, and Frances, his 
daughter, on one part, and William 
Cook, of St. Martin's, Esq. Francis 
Bacon, of Gray's Inn, Esq., and Weston 
Shaw, servant to William Cook, on the 
other. In consideration of 3001. Sir 
Henry Goodere and Frances, his daugh- 
ter, convey to said Francis Bacon and 
Weston Shaw all the tythes of corn, &c., 



in Hartsliill, with all such right as they 
the said Sir Henry and his daughter 
have by virtue of an indenture dated 
July 6, 29 Elizabeth, between William 
Parker, of Hartshill, and Katharine, his 
wife, and Sir Henry Goodere and 
Frances, his daughter. 

31 Elizabeth, Indenture of fine between Sir Henry 

Hilary Term. Goodere and Frances, his daughter, 
petitioners, Robert Parker and Kath- 
arine, his wife, deforcients, of all the 
tythes in Hartshill. 

31 Elizabeth, Assignment from Francis Bacon and 

June 13. Weston Shaw to Mr. Cook of the tythes 

in Hartshill. 

To the student of Baconian lore, these Indentures are 
crammed full of the names of interesting people. Sir 
Henry Goodere, knt. of Polesworth, being no other than 
Drayton's ''mild tutor" in poetry, whose daughter, Anne 
Goodere, Drayton "deified" in his heart, under his 
''Idea" sonnets. Drayton was born in Hartshill in that 
fair Arden immortalized by Shakespeare in As You Like 
It, close to the castelated mansion of the Cookes. A 
Henry (loodere, Alderman of Loudon, had a sou AMl- 
liam, who married Anne Cooke of London. Our Sir 
Henry Goodere of Polesworth married Frances, da. of 
Hugh Lowther, and they had two daughters — Anne, who 
was Drayton's "Idea" and became the wife of Sir Henry 
Rainsford of Stratford-ou-Avou, and Frances Goodere, 
who married her first cousin. Sir Henry Goodere, and is 
the Frances mentioned in the Indentures to Bacon. A 
branch of the Goodere family lived in St. Albans, and a 
Sir Francis Goodier married Ursula, sister and heir of 
Sir Ralph Rowlett, Knight. Bacon's youngest aunt, 

53 



Margaret Cooke, became the wife of a Sir Ealpli Rowlett 
of St. Albans. She died in 1588. See Machin's Diary,. 
and Harl. MSS., 1167. Thus it will be seen the Gooderes 
were related to Bacon and the Cooke family. No line 
has come down from Bacon's pen to even hint he was 
acquainted with Michael Dayton, the poet, who was born 
at Hartshill and brought up by the gentle Goodere fami- 
ly. This, I think, ought to strengthen my conjecture 
that Bacon knew Shakespeare, although no record has 
been discovered to tell us so. 

It was in June, 1589, Francis Bacon assigned the 
tythes of Hartshill to Sir William Cooke, his cousin, and 
we are told Shakespeare fled to London in 1587. This 
Sir William Cooke married Joyce Lucy, the daughter 
and heiress of Sir Thomas Lucy, who was tlie son and 
heir of Shakespeare's Justice Shallow in the Merry 
Wives of Windsor. Halliwell Phillips, in his Shakes- 
peare's Tours, 1887, p. 6, has this about Shakespeare's 
Sir Thomas Lucy: 

"Sir Thomas Lucy, the avenger of the Charlecote esca- 
pade, was the patron of a body of itinerant actors,'^ 
then quotes from the Chamberlain's accounts at Coven- 
try, 1584: "To Sir Thomas Lucy's players X. S." If 
Sir Thomas had taken Shakespeare into his home like 
Sir Henry Goodere had taken Drayton, what a diifer- 
ence it would have made in our poet's life I 

To Benja^nin Bartlett's Mandnessedum Romanorum: 
being the History of the Parish of Maneeter, in the 
county of Wartvich, 1791, I am indebted for the follow- 
ing extracts relating to Bacon's maternal kinsmen, the 
Cookes of Hartshill, Warwickshire: 

T\ef erring to Manccfcr he says: 

"It is situate in the hundred of Hemlingford, in the 
North part of the county of Warwick, a part of the an- 



■oient and extensive forest of Arden, of which her native 
poet and industrious Antiquary sings, 

''Muse, first of Arden tell, whose footsteps yet are 

found 
"In her rough woodlands more than any other ground 
' ' That mighty Arden held even in her height of pride ; 

The Arden here celebrated hy our poet was, as he 
says, the largest of all the forest in Britain, extending 
from the banks of the Avon, which washes the whole 
South side of tliis huge wild, to the Trent on the North, 
to the Severn on the West, and East to an imaginary line 
drawn from High Cross to Burton. 

HARTSHILL. 

HARTSHILL, the third village in the parish, the Cam- 
pus Martins of the Romans, and by them included in 
the general name of Manduessedum, was first settled and 
inhabited by the Saxons, who called it Ardenshill. By the 
Conqueror it was let to farm Ansley to Nicholas, a man 
of note in those days, at 100 shillings, as in Domesday, 
where it is called ArdresMll, and with Ansley contained 
two hides and several caracutes. There were thirteen 
villans with five caracutes more, also six acres of meadow ; 
all which had been valued at four pounds, but now at 
100 shillings. Not long after the census was finished, 
the Conqueror gave this lordship with the rest of the 
parish, and the adjoining one of Ansley, to Hugh Lupus 
earl of Chester, whose nephew and heir Ramdph de 
Meschines gave Hartshill and Ansley to his kinsman 
Hugh. By him and his descendants it was called Aldre- 
dushidl, Hardreshidl, Harderhidl, Hardeshull, Harte- 
shnll, and in later days Hareshull and Hartshill. 

The village is built on the North end of the hilly plain, 

55 



forming' a rustic square, near tlie centre of which stands 
an old building (now a cottage) called the chapel, which 
name I find it bore in the reign of James I.,** but when it 
was used for any religious purpose does not appear. 

On the West side of the village is a large wood stretch- 
ing, up near the camp at Oldbury, the remains of the 
woods of the Arden, in antient days called from its pos- 
sessors Sylva Hugonis, Sylva Williemi, and now The 
Hays, in the side of which, adjoining the castle, is a 
large tumulus. From the village the grounds fall gently 
to the river, Ankor, which runs pleasantly through this 
manor, directing its course from South East to North 
West. 

Drayton, in complaisance to the place of his nativity, 
with poetic exaggeration sings, 

"Our floods, queen Thames for ships and swans renown 'd, 
''And stately Severn for her shores is praised, 

"The christal Trent for fords and fish renown 'd, 
"And Avon's fame to Albion's cliffs is raised, . . , 

" Arden 's sweet Ankor, let thy glory be, 
"That fair idea onely lives by thee." 

Bartlett has the following note on William de Har- 
dreskull, and to the Abbot l>acouu : 

This William, during the life-time of his father, was a 
subscribing tvitness to a charter of Ranulf de Gernonis, 
done at Nottingham, confirming his nepheiv Bacoim's 
foundation charter of the abbey of Roucester in Staf- 
fordshire. Monast. II. p. 268. 

William died 46 Henry III. 1264,* leaving his wife 

**Note — In 1608, in Cook's deed of sale it is termed a cottage, called 
the chapel. May 6, 1621, Jane Wright, widow of Christopher Wright, of 
Happersford. and daughter of Francis Purefoy, of Caldecot, leases to 
Ralph Parker for eight years, the house called the chapel, standing in 
the middle of the village. 

*N0TE.— Rot. Pat. 46 Hen. III. 

56 



Matilda, afterwards married to William de Ardern, two 
sons, tvho afterwards by turns enjoyed the estate. About 
this time he had granted certain lands in Anesley to 
William de Bret, tvho built himself a mansion-house, 
tvhich afterivards obtained the name of Bret's hall, as the 
land that of a manor. A succeeding William obtained 
34: Edward III. the bishop's license to have divine service 
celebrated in his private oratory for the space of two 
years. 

Thomas Colepeper, who married Elizabeth, one of the 
daughters and coheirs of Sir William Haut of Hauts- 
born. He was the last of that family that had any- 
thing to do at Hartshill, for in the beginning of the reign 
of Edward VI. he sold that manor and estate, after it had 
been in one family, male and female included, four hun- 
dred and fifty years, to Sir Anthony Cook. 

Sir Anthony Cook, of Giddyhall in Essex, was the son 
of Sir John Philip Cook, by Elizabeth, one of the 
daughters and coheirs of Sir Henry Belknap of Eidlings- 
would in Kent,* and the great grand-son of Sir Thomas 
Cook, the founder and builder of Giddyhall, who in April 
15, 1465, 4 Edward IV. being then lord mayor of Lon- 
don, was with several others created a knight of the 
Bath, the better to grace the coronation of the queen, 
late the lady Elizabeth Grey, which was celebrated the 
next day. In the succeeding year he was charged with 
high treason, but admitted to bail. But after the mar- 
riage of Margaret, the king's sister (his great friend), 
to Charles, duke of Burgundy, in 1468 he was arrested 
and committed to the Tower, his goods seized, and his 
estates sequestered; and though acquitted of the charge, 
he could not obtain his liberty without paying the exorbi^ 

*NoTE. — And in her right possessed of lands in Wapenbury and 
Derset, and by purchase in Stockinford, all in the county of Warwick. 

57 



tant fine of eight tliousands pounds to tlie king, nnd 
eight hundred marks to the queen; besides this, he suf- 
fered great losses from his enemy's servants, who had 
the keeping of his estates, which were not restored to him 
until Henry VI. resumed the throne 1470, when he was 
appointed keeper of the queen's wardrobe, and customer 
of the port of Southampton; and in this year he again 
served the office of mayor, as locum, teiiens for John 
Skelton, a partizan of the house of York, who, to avoid 
danger, feigned himself sick. Sir Thomas died 18 Ed- 
ward IV. 1478. 

Sir Anthony was born in 1500, and in 1544 appointed 
one of the tutors to Edward VI. In Mary's days he was 
an exile. In the succeeding reign of Elizabeth he repaired 
and finished Giddyhall, which the losses his great grand- 
father had suffered had prevented him from doing; and 
in it he had the honor of entertaining Elizabeth in her 
progress into Kent in 1568.* On the front he placed the 
following lines: 

"^dibus his frontem proavus Thomas dedit olim; 

''Addidit Antoni caetera sera manus." 

8 Elizabeth he leased to Michael and Edmond Parker 
the castellated manor-house at Hartshill, with the park 
and other lands, amounting to three hundred acres at 
forty pounds per annum. He married iVnne the daughter 
of Sir William Fitz William of Gain's park, Essex, and 
of Milton in Northamptonshire ; and died at Giddy hall, 18 
Elizabeth, 1576, aged 76. He was buried in Rumford 
chapel, where a stately monument was erected for him, 
with this inscription: 

"Dominus Antonius Cocus, ordinis equestris miles, ob 
singularem doctrinam, prudentiam, et pietatem Edovardi 
institutor constitutus. 

*X()TE. — See "Queen Elizabeth's I'rogresses" under that year. 

58 



"Uxorem liabuit filiam Gulielmi Fitz Williams de Mil- 
ton militis, vere piam et generosam, cum qua diu feliciter 
&c." 

He left issue a son Richard, who succeeded him in his 
estates, and four daughters : 

Mildred, married to William Cecill Lord Burleigh; 

Anne, to Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the great 
seal ; 

Elizabeth, to Sir John Eussel. son and heir of Fran- 
cis earl of Bedford ; 

And Katharine, to Sir Henry Killigrew. 

Of these ladies it is said, that they were learned above 
their sex in Greek and Latin, and equally distinguished 
by their virtue, piety, and good fortune. 

Richard, his son who succeeded to the estate, married 
Anne, daughter of John Caulton, Esq., by whom he had a 
son, Anthony, born in 1550, who afterwards enjoyed the 
estate. He married Avice, the daughter of Sir William 
Waldgrave, and was succeeded by his son Sir William, 
who married Joyce, the daughter and heiress of Sir 
Thomas Lucy of Highnam, in Gloucestershire, where he 
and his posterity afterwards resided. Sir William Cook 
died 1618, and was succeeded by his son Sir Robert. 

Whilst Sir Anthony Cook possessed this estate. Harts- 
hill gave birth to her celebrated poet and industrious 
antiquary, MICHAEL DRAYTON, descended from the 
ancient family of the Draytons of Drayton in Leicester- 
shire. 

He was born 15 Elizabeth, 1563, in this village, and 
not at Atherston, as Sir William Dugdale says, perhaps 
led thereto from many of his relations living there at that 
time, and now not all extinct. But the hamlet of Hartshill 
derives celebrity from a just claim to his birth, as appears 
indisputably true from the Latin lines under his portrait, 



fet. 50, by W. Hole, prefixed to tlie edition of his works 
published in his lifetime, and under his own inspection, 
1627, which could not have escaped his correction had 
it been erroneous : 

"Lux Hareshula tibi Warwici villa (tenebris 
"Ante tuas cunas obsita) prima fuit. 

"Arma, viros, veneres, patriam, modulamine dixti; 
"Te patriae resonant, arma, viri, veneres." 

Had Sir William paid a proper attention to these lines, 
he would not have made that mistake, which from his 
great character succeeding writers have adopted. . . . 

.... In 1573, being but ten years old, he appears 
by his own words to have been page to some person of 
honour, able to construe his Cato and other sentences, 
and solicitous with his tutor to make liim a poet. 

. . . . He spent many of his younger years at 
Polesworth in the family of Sir Henry Goodyere, to 
whom he addresses his odes: 

"These Lyric pieces short and few, 
"Most worthy Sir, I send to you, 

' ' To read them be not weary, 
"They may become John Hews his lyre, 
"Which oft at Powlsworth by the fire 

"Has made us gravely merry." 

Bacon's Chaplain, Rawley, in 1657, printed the follow- 
ing letter in the Resuscitatio, p. 92, which Bacon had 
written about 1594 to Sir Thomas Lucy, the son of 
Shakespeare's Justice Shallow: 

To Sir Thomas Lucy. 
Sir, There was no Newes, better welcom to me, this 
long time, than that, of the good Success, of my Kins- 
man; wherein, if he be happy, he cannot be happy alone, 

60 



it consisting of two parts. And I render you, no less 
kinde Thanks, for your aid, and Favour, towards him, 
than if it had been for my Self; Assuring you, that this 
"Bond of Alliance, shall, on my part, tye me, to give all 
the Tribute, to your good Fortune, upon all occasions, 
that my poor Strength can yield. I send you, so required, 
an Abstract, of the Lands of Inheritance; And one Lease 
of great value, which my Kinsman hringeth; with a Note, 
of the Tenures, Values, Contents, and State, truly, and 
perfectly, drawen; whereby you may perceive, the Land 
is good Land, and well countenanced, by scope of Acres, 
Woods, and Royalties; Though the Total of the Rents, 
be set down, as it now goeth, without Improvement: In 
which respect, it may somewhat differ, from your first 
Note. Out of this, what he will assure in Joincture, I 
leave it, to his own kindness ; For I love not to measure 
Affection. To conclude, I doubt not, your Daughter, 
mought have married, to a better Living, but never to a 
better Life; Having chosen a Gentleman, bred to all Hon- 
esty, Vertue, and Worth, with an Estate convenient. 
And if my Brother, or my Self, were either Thrivers, or 
Fortunate, in the Queens Service, I would hope, there 
should be left, as great an House, of the Cookes, in this 
Gentleman, as in your good Friend, Mr. Atturney Gen- 
eral. But sure I am, if Scriptures fail not, it will have as 
much of Gods Blessing; and Sufficiency, is ever the best 
Feast, &c. 

Spedding in Letters and Life of Bacon, Vol. II, p. 369, 
refers to this letter as follows: "The next is addressed 
to Sir Thomas Lucy — eldest son, I suppose, of Jus- 
tice Shallow. For I find in Burke's 'Commoners of 
Great Britain' that Sir Thomas Lucy, knight, of Charl- 
cote, who succeeded his father in IGOO, had by his 
first wife a daughter (Joyce), who married Sir William 

61 



Cook, knigiit, of Higlinam. Sir William Cook may have 
been one of Bacon's kinsmen by tlie mother's side, and 
his ai3proaching marriage with Joyce Lucy may have 
been the occasion of this letter: which comes from the 
supplementary collection in the 'Resuscitatio." It is 
sufficiently intelligible as it stands ; nor have I any reason 
to suppose that a more complete account of the relations 
between the parties, of their previous history and subse- 
quent journey through this transitory life, would add 
anything material to the little interest which it still 
retains for us, as an agreeable and very characteristic 
letter." 

I esteem Spedding's opinion highly, but I cannot agree 
with him that this letter retains but little interest for us. 
To students of Elizabethan literature it conjures up men 
as familiar as household words. Francis Bacon, whose 
name we revere; Sir Edward Coke, Elizabeth's Attorney 
General ; the scholarly Anthony Bacon, whose work was 
never appreciated by the Qneen or his kinsmen, the 
Cecils; Sir William Cooke, Bacon's cousin, and a de- 
scendant of that Sir Thomas Cooke who lost his estates 
and almost his head for his loyalty to Henry VI.; and 
last but not least. Sir Thomas Lucy, the son and heir of 
that famous Sir Thomas Lucy, whom critics call 
''Shakespeare's Justice Shallow," for it was he who 
drove the poet from Stratford for breaking into his pafiv 
and stealing his deer; or, as our authority, Nicholas 
Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, puts it: "He 
had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, 
fallen into ill company, and amongst them some that 
made a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him 
more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir 
Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this 
he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, 

G2 



somewhat too severely; and, in order to revenge that ill 
usage, he made a ballad upon him. This, probably the 
first essay of his poetry, is said to have been so very 
bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to 
that degree that he was obliged to leave his business 
and family in Warwickshire for some time and shelter 
himself in London." 

Justice Shallow was alive when the letter was written 
in 1594. I judge it was written in that year because 
Coke was made Attorney General in April, 1594, and 
Anthony Bacon died in 1601, broken in heart and in 
health for his friend, the Earl of Essex. 

Sir Thomas Lucy, to whom Bacon writes, was about 
thirty-five or thirty-six years old when Shakespeare fled 
to London. Sir William Cooke lived on a neighboring 
estate and married his daughter, Joyce Lucy. Sir Fulke 
Greville, the poet, another of Bacon's warm friends, 
lived near them ; and I am convinced all these gentlemen 
knew of Shakespeare's plight and that through their 
correspondence it reached Bacon. In those days private 
letters were filled with all the gossip of the town and 
country. Now we know Francis Bacon ever had 

"A tear for pity and a hand open as day for melting 
charity. ' ' 

Would it be too wild a conjecture to say I believe 
Shakespeare had met Bacon in Warwickshire and that 
on his arrival in London he sought him out at his lodg- 
ings in Grays Inn, and through Bacon's influence he was 
placed where he became a servant to the Lord Chamber- 
lain, Henry Carey, first Lord Hundson, and Queen Eliza- 
1)etli's cousin. In no other way, it seems to me, could 
Shakespeare have attained the phenomenal progress he 
is said to have made in five or six years after his arrival 

63 



in London. Some of his biographers say he reached the 
metropolis in 1585; others make it as late as 1587. Yet 
Eobert Greene, one of the choicest poets of that time and 
a thorough scholar, grew so envious of our poet's plays 
before 1592 that he called him "an upstart Crow." Some 
critics conjecture that Shakespeare applied to James 
Burbage, or to Eichard Field, the printer, because they 
also claim these two ^vere from his native Stratford. 
But James Burbage was from Hertsfordshire, not War- 
wickshire, and as for Eichard Field, the printer of Venus 
and Adonis and Lucrece, until I have some better author- 
ity than John Payne Collier, who was the first to bring 
out this "fact" in 1849, I cannot accept it. 

But let us return to Eowe. "It is at this time, and upon 
this accident, that he is said to have made his first 
acquaintance in the playhouse. He was received into the 
company then in being, at first in a very mean rank, but 
his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the stage, 
soon distinguished him, if not as an extraordinary actor, 
yet as an excellent writer. His name is printed, as the 
custom was in those times, amongst those of the other 
players, before some old plays, but without any particu- 
lar account of what sort of parts he used to play; and 
though I have enquired, I could never meet with any 
further account of him this way, than that the top of his 
performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet. I should 
have been much more pleased to have learned, from cer- 
tain authority, which was the first play he wrote; it 
would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious 
in things of this kind, to see and know what was the 
first essay of a fancy like Shakespeare's." 

Alas, poor Ghost ! Alas, too, that no ' ' certain author- 
ity" could tell Eowe what the "first essay" of Shake- 
was. Like our critics of the present 

04 



horrible war, he lived too near the time to hear or learn 
all the truth. It would seem that our poet did not care 
to recognize any of the dramas that so magically dropped 
from his pen, for in 1593 he calls Venus and Adonis 
"the first heir of his invention/' and in the following 
year, 1594, he gave the world his Lucrece. This year 
(1594) was a most momentous one in the lives of Shake- 
speare and Bacon, for at Christmas time the Comedy of 
Errors was performed at Grays Inn. Thus distinguish- 
ing Shakespeare above all the dramatists of his day, 
because to have a play staged in the fine Hall of Grays 
Inn was as great an honor as to be presented at court. 
Here the immortal Bacon reigned supreme over the 
masques, sports and revels, and might be called the Lord 
Chamberlain of Grays Inn for licensing dramatic per- 
formances; for that was one of the duties of the Lord 
Chamberlain at court, for whose company all of Shake- 
speare's plays were written, and they continued under 
the control of that officer down to the Chamberlain of 
Charles L, who was Philip Earl of Pembroke, one of 
the "Incomparable brothers" to whom the first folio was 
dedicated in 1623. Shakespeare's name is not mentioned 
in the Gesta Gray o rum, neither is Bacon's, yet the best 
critics agree, from Malone's time down, that the Comedy 
of Errors, performed at Grays Inn on December 28, 1594, 
was Shakespeare's. The poet's name first appeared on 
his Love's Labours Lost in 1598, showing he was indif- 
ferent to his plays or that the Lord Chamberlain's com- 
pany controlled them entirely after they left his hands. 
His poems were more precious to him, as we see from the 
Dedications. It has been also proven on the highest 
authority that Bacon largely composed the contents of 
the (l<xta drayoriini. The 28th of December, 1594, must 
have been one of the brightest days in our poet's life, for 

65 



on that day liis name first appears with that of Eichard 
Bnrbage and AVilliam Kempe's in "two several Come- 
dies or interludes" at Greenwich Palace before the 
Queen. (See Halliwell PhilliiDs.) This was upon St. 
Innocent's Bay, and when he left the stately and sump- 
tuous i:)alace of Elizabeth he had to make ready for the 
performance of his farce at Grays Inn that very night, 
and it was the second grand night of the Christmas 
sports and revels, as the Gesta Grayonim relates : 

''Tlie next grand night was intended to be upon Inno- 
cent 's-day at night ; at which time there was a great pres- 
ence of lords, ladies, and worshipful personages, that did 
expect some notable performance at that time; which, 
indeed, had been effected, if the multitude of beholders 
had not been so exceeding, no convenient room for those 
that were actors ; by reason whereof, very good inventions 
and conceipts could not have opportunity to be applauded, 
which otherwise would have been great coutentations to the 
beholders. Against which time, our friend, the Inner 
Temple, determined to send their Ambassador to our Prince 
of State, as sent from Fredericl- TempJariin^, their Emperor, 
who was then busied in his wars against the Turk. The 
Ambassador came very gallantly appointed, and attended 
by a great number of brave gentlemen, which arrived at our 
Court about nine of the clock at niglit. Upon their coming 
thither, the King at Arms gave notice to the Prince, then 
sitting in his chair of state in the hall, that there w^as 
to come to his Court an Ambassador from his ancient 
friend the State of Templaria, which desired to have 
present access unto his Highness ; and shewed his Honour 
further, that he seemed to be of very good sort, because 
he was so well attended; and therefore desired, that it 
would please his Honour that some of his Nobles and 
Lords might conduct him to his Highness 's presence, 

60 



wliicli was done. So lie was brought in very solemnly,, 
with sound of trumpets, the King at Arms and Lords of 
Purpoole making to his company, which marched before 
Lim in order. He was received very kindly of the Prince, 
and placed in a chair besides his Highness, to the end 
that he might be a partaker of the sports intended." 

Surely this must have thrilled our poet's heart with 
joy and gratitude. His presence at the Queen's court in 
the morning meant much, but here in this renowned Hall 
of Grays Inn, before the most cultured and critical audi- 
ence in all England, must have meant much more. Yet 
what they were to witness was the merest trifle and his 
lightest farce. It was a comedy that must have appealed 
to Francis and Anthony Bacon, because they were both 
fond of a jest and knew by experience what it meant to 
be dunned for debt and sought by the sheriff. It is only 
a conjecture, but for my part I think the Bacon brothers 
may have suggested this farce for the occasion and that 
it was hurriedly dashed off by Shakespeare. At that 
period Anthony Bacon was living in Bishoj^sgate Street, 
near to play houses and players, and we are told Shake- 
speare also resided there. 

To return to the Gcsfa (Irai/onim "When the 
ambassador was placed, as aforesaid, and that 
there was something to be performed for the delight 
of the beholders,, there arose such a distorted tumult 
and crowd upon the stage, that there was no opportunity 
to effect that which was intended : there came so great a 
number of worshipful personages upon the stage that 
might not be displaced, and gentlewomen whose sex did 
privilege them from violence, that when the Prince and 
his officers had in vain, a good while, expected and en- 
deavoured a reformation, at length there was no hope of 
redress for that present. The Lord Ambassador and his. 



train thought that they were not so kindly entertained 
as was before expected, and thereupon would not stay 
any longer at that time, but, in a sort, discontented and 
displeased. After their departure, the throngs and tu- 
mults did somewhat cease, although so much of them con- 
tinued as was able to disorder and confound any good 
inventions whatsoever. In regard whereof, as also for 
that the sports intended were especially for the gracing 
the Templarians, it was thought good not to offer any 
thing of account, saving dancing and revelling with gen- 
tlewomen; and after such sports, a Comedy of Errors 
(like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the play- 
ers. So that night war begun and continued to the end 
in nothing but confusion and errors; whereupon, it was 
ever afterwards called, ''The Night of Errors." 

The ''players" were the servants of the Lord Cham- 
berlain, Henry Carey, the first lord Hunsdon, whose 
daughter Margaret became the wife of Bacon's cousin. 
Sir Edward Hoby. His father. Sir Thomas Hoby, trans- 
lated many works, among them "The Courtyer of Count 
Bahlessar Cas-tilJo:' (See p. 40, GeMa GraijorKin.) In 
1558 Bacon's aunt, Elizabeth Cooke, became this gentle- 
man's wife. I only mention the Lord Chamberlain Huns- 
don to illustrate Bacon's nearness to the Elizabethan 
stage when Shakespeare arrived in London and to give 
reason for my conjecture that Bacon, more than any 
other man in London, could have aided the poet in the 
work he desired. To return to the Comedy of Errors: 

"Tliis mischanceful accident sorting so ill, to the great 
prejudice of the rest of our proceedings, was a great dis- 
couragement and disparagement to our whole state ; yet 
it gave occasion to the lawyers of the Prince's Council, 
the next night, after revels, to read a commission of Oyer 
and Terminer, directed to certain Noblemen and Lords 



of his Highness 's Council, and others, that they shoiikl 
enquire, or cause enquiry to be made, of some great dis- 
orders and abuses lately done and committed within his 
Highness 's dominions of Purpoole, especially by sorceries 
and inchantments ; and namely, of a great witchcraft used 
the night before, whereby there were great disorders and 
misdemeanours, by hurly-burlies, crowds, errors, con- 
fusions, vain representations, and shows, to the utter dis- 
credit of our state and jxtlicv/' 

Now those who read between the lines know that this 
''mischanceful accident" was all cut and dried before 
hand to give the gentlemen actors a chance for their 
'*law^-sports." So the Gesta Grayorum continues: 
'"The next night upon this occasion, we preferred judg- 
ments thick and threefold which were read publicly by 
the Clerk of the Crown, being all against a sorcerer or 
conjurer that was supposedto be the cause of that con- 
fused inconvenience. Therein was contained. How he 
had caused the stage to be built, and scaffolds to be reared 
to the top of the house, to increase expectation. Also 
how he had caused divers ladies and gentlemen, and others 
of good condition to be invited to our sports; also our 
dearest friend the State of Templaria, to be disgraced, 
and disappointed of their entertainment, deserved and 
intended. Also that he caused throngs and tumults, 
crowds and outrages, to disturb our whole proceedings. 
And lastly, that he had foisted a company of base and 
common fellows, to make up our disorders with a play 
of Errors and Confusions ; and that that night had gained 
to us discredit, and itself a nickname of Errors. All which 
were against the crown and dignity of our Sovereign 
Lord the Prince of Purpoole." 

Who was this "sorcerer or conjurer" that caused the 

CO 



stage to be built and scaffolds to be reared to the top of 
the house," and lastly had foisted a company of base 
and common fellows to make up our disorders! Tie 
is not named in the Gesta Grayonim, which says : 

"Uuder colour of these proceedings, wm-c laid open to 
the view all the causes of note that were committed by 
our chiefest statesmen in the government of our princi- 
pality ; and every officer in any great place, that had not 
performed his duty in that service, was taxed hereby, from 
the highest to the lowest, not sparing the guard and 
porters, that suffered so many disordered persons to 
enter in at the court gates : upon whose aforesaid indict- 
ments the prisoner was arraigned at the bar, being 
brought thither by the Lieutenant of the Tower (for at 
that time the stocks were graced with that name) ; and 
the Sheriff impannelled a jury of twenty-four gentlemen, 
that were to give their verdict upon the evidence given. 
The prisoner appealed to the Prince his Excellency for 
justice; and humbly desired that it would please his 
Highness to understand the truth of the matter by his 
supplication, which he had ready to be offei'ed to the 
Master of the Requests. The Prince gave leave to the 
Master of the Requests, that he should read the petition ; 
wherein was a disclosure of all the knavery and juggling 
of the Attorney and Solicitor, which had brought all his 
law-stuff on purpose to blind the eyes of his Excellency 
and all the honourable Court there, going about to make 
them think that those things which they all saw and 
perceived sensibly to be in very deed done, and actually 
performed, were nothing else but vain illusions, fancies, 
dreams and enchantments, and to be wrought and com- 
passed by the means of a poor harmless wretch, that never 
had heard of such great matters in all his life ; whereas^ 
the very fault was in the negligence of the Prince's Conn- 



cil, Lords, and Officers of his State, that had the rule of 
the roast, and by whose advice the Commonwealth was 
so soundly misgoverned. To prove these things to be 
true he l)r()ught divers instances of i»r-eat absurdities 
committed by the greatest: and made such allegitions 
i\s could not be denied. These were done by some that 
were touched by the Attorney and Solicitor in their 
former proceedings, and they used the prisoner's names 
for means of quittance with them in that behalf. But 
the Prince and States-men (being pinched on both sides 
by both parties) were not a little offended at the great 
liberty that they had taken in censuring so far of his 
Highness 's government; and thereupon the prisoner was 
freed and pardoned, the Attorney, Solicitor, Master of 
the Bequests, and those that were acquainted with the 
draught of the petition, were all of them commanded to 
the Tower ; so the Lieutenant took charge of them. And 
this was the end of our law-sports, concerning the Night 
of Errors." 

The Gesta Grayorum does not tell us the name of the 
^'poor, harmless wretch, that never heard of such great 
matters in all his life" by whose means all these ''en- 
chantments" were wrought. I cannot help thinking: 

'^Tliose oft are stratagems ivliich Errors seem, 
Nor is it Homer nods, hut ive that dream." 

Drayton, in his epistle to his "dearly loved friend, 
Henry Keyuohls, Esq., of Poets and Pocsij," in 1C27, 
writes thus of himself and Sir Henry Goodere: 

For from my cradle {you must know tJiat) I 
Was still inclined to noble poesy, 
And when that once pueriles I had read, 
And neivly had my Cato construed, 

71 



In my small self I greatly marvell'd then, 
Amongst all other, tuhat strange kind of men 
These poets were, and pleased with the name. 
To my mild tutor merrily I came, 
(For I was then a proper goodly page. 
Much like a pigmy scarce ten years of age) 
Clasping my slender arms about his thigh. 

'^0 my dear master! cannot you" (quoth I) 

"Make me a poetf Do it, if you can, 
And you shall see, I'll quickly he a man.'' 
Who me thus answer'd smiling, "Boy," quoth he, 

"If you'll not play the ivag, hut I may see 
You ply your learning, I will shortly read 
Some poets to you." 

AVliat would we not have given to have had even a line 
or two from ''the star of poets" to tell us how he began 
to woo the Muse! It is known that Dr. John Hall 
Shakespeare's son-in-law left some manuscripts which 
a certain James Cooke, a physician and surgeon of Lon- 
don, purchased from Dr. Hall's widow. These "Select 
Observations on English Bodies" were "Englished by 
James Cooke and published in London in 1657. The book 
"gives cases of persons connected with the poet's family, 
and also of Drayton, the Poet" (see Lowndes), but does 
not mention the poet himself. Dr. Hall never dreamed 
how interested posterity would be in Shakespeare else 
he would have described the poet's last illness and death 
minutely. At any rate, it seems Drayton was a patient 
of Dr. Hall's, and although he never mentions the name 
of Shakespeare but once I am convinced he knew him 
well if not intimately. In a MSS. of the Eev. John 
Ward, 1661-1663, there are some extracts relating to the 
poet from which I select three: "I have heard yt Mr. 

72 



Shakespeare was a natural wit, without any art at all; 
hee frequented ye plays all his younger time, but in his 
elder days lived at Stratford." 

^'Shakespear, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry 
meeting, and itt seems drank too hard, for Shakespear 
died of a feavour there contracted." 

**A letter to my brother, to see Mrs. Queeny, to send 
to Tom Smith for the acknowledgment." 

This ''Mrs. Queeny'' was Judith Quiuey, Shakespeare's 
daughter, who died in 1652. Shakespeare's Centime of 
Praise. Revised by Lucy Toulmin Smith. 

Now here we have Drayton again connected with the 
poet a little before the latter 's death in April, 1616. 
Eleven years after Drayton pens these lines of faint 
praise, it seems to me, in his ''0/ Poets and Poesy" : 

^^Shakespeare, thou hadst as smoothe a Comiche vaine, 
Fitting the socke, and in thy natural braine, 
As strong conception, and as Cleere a rage, 
As any one that trafiqu'd with the Stage.'' 

Which was faint praise indeed from one who knew 
Shakespeare so well. The word ^Hrafiqu'd" is unpleas- 
ing to a Shakespearian ear ; the poet himself never used 
it in a good sense. See Winter Tale, iv. 3, and Timon of 
Athens, i, 1, etc. 

The Rev. John Ward's criticism of Shakespeare's 
''natural wit without any art at all" and Drayton's '^as 
smoothe a Comicke vaine" seem rather to coincide. In 
regard to the "merry meeting" of the three poets I'm 
pretty sure Drayton never indulged in too much drink. 
The following lines to Henry Reynolds proves his tastes 
were moderate in this kind : 

73 



"My dearly loved friend, hoiv oft have ive, 
In ivinter evenings {meaning to he free) 
To some ivell chosen place used to retire, 
And there ivith moderate meat and wine, and fire. 

Have pa^ised the hours contentedly with chaf' 

of Poets and Poesy. 

That Ben Jonson drank too much is well known. 
Drummond tells us it ''was the element in which he 
lived." As for Shakespeare, we have nothing to go by 
but tradition, and that is not history. I am inclined to 
think Drayton was not very fond of Jonson, that there 
was no aflfinity between them, although they had been 
connected in their dramatic compositions in 1597-8 
and again in 1605. I do not think Drayton cared much 
for the drama. His genius did not flow that way; the 
world of the Theatre was too loud for his sensitive spirit. 
He tells us in his ''Idea" (1593-4) : 

XLVII 

In pride of wit when high desire of fame 
Gave life and courage to my labouring pen. 
And first the sound and virtue of my name 
Won grace and credit in the ears of men ; 
With those the thronged theatres that press 
I in the circuit for the laurel strove, 
Where the full praise, I freely must confess, 
In heat of blood a modest mind might move ; 
With shouts and claps at every little pause 
When the proud round on every side hath rung. 
Sadly I sit, unmoved with the applause. 
As though to me it nothing did belong. 

No public glory vainly I pursue ; 

All that I seek is to eternize you. 



"Was ''the proud round" tlie Globe? I think so. And 
as he was ''nobly bred and well allyd" Ben Jonson may 
have sometimes grated on him. In fact Jonson knew 
there was some doubt expressed on their friendship, for 
he writes to Drayton: 

*'It Jiath been question' d, Michael, if I be 
A friend at all; or, if at all, to thee: 
Because, who make the question, have not seen 
Those ambling visits pass in verse between 
Thy Muse and mine, as they expect. 'Tis true : 
You have not writ to me, nor I to you; 
And, though I now begin, 'tis not to rub 
Haunch against haunch, or raise a rhyming club 
About the town: This reckoning I tvill pay. 
Without conferring symbols. This 'is my umy." {The 
Vision of Ben Jonson.) 

I think these lines were written years after Shakes- 
peare's death — about 1627. If taken in their literal 
sense they prove there had never been any correspon- 
dence between Drayton and Jonson up to that date. If 
Sir Henry Goodere taught Drayton what poets were at 
the age of ten, his fair daughter Anne's eyes taught him 
also at an early age the Alphabet of Love. In his Idea 
we find: 

LXIV 

Thine eyes taught me the alphabet of Love, 
To con my cross-row ere I learned to spell 
(For I was apt, a scholar like to prove), 
Oave me sweet looks when-as I learned well. 
Vows were my vowels, when I then begun 
At my first lesson in thy sacred name; 
My consonants, the next when I had done, 

75 



Words consonant and sounding to thy fame 
My liquids then were liquid crystal tears, 
My cares my mutes, so mute to crave relief ; 
My doleful diphthongs were my life's despairs, 
Eedoubling sighs, the accents of my grief. 

My love's school-mistress now hath taught me so, 

That I can read a story of my woe. 

I have not been able to find out the date of Anne's 
birth, but she married Sir Henry Rainsford of Stratford- 
on-Avon in 1596. She must have been much younger 
than Drayton, because he writes of ''seeing" her sister, 
Frances Goodere/' "ever from her cradle." In Haii 
MS. 1167 Anne's name is placed before her sister Fran- 
ces' in the pedigree of Sir Henry Goodere. 

DEDICATION OF 

LADY JANE GRAY, 

TO THE VEETUOUS LADIE, THE LADY FRAXGES 

GOODERE, 

WIFE TO SIR GOODERE, KNIGHT. 

My very gracious and good mistris, the love and duetie 
I bare vnto your father whilest he lined, now after his 
decease is to you hereditarie ;. to whom by the blessing 
of your birth liee left his vertues. Who bequeathed 
you those which were his, gaue you whatsoeuer good is 
mine, as denoted to his, hee being gone, whom I honoured 
so much whilst he lined; which you justly challenge by 
all sawes of thankefulnesse. My selfe hauing beene a 
witnesse of your excellent education, and milde disposi- 
tion (as I may say) ener from your cradle, dedicate this 
epistle of this vertuous and godly lady to your selfe ; so 
like her in all perfection, both of wisdome and learning. 



which I pray you accept, till time enable me to leaue you 
some greater monumeut of mj loue. Vhalmers, Eng- 
lish Poets, Vol. IV. 



DEDICATION OF 

MAEY THE FRENCH QUEENE. 

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL SIR HENRY 

GOODERE OF POAVLSWORTH, KNIGHT. 

SIR, this poeme of mine, which I imparted to you, at 
my being with you at your lodging at London, in May 
last, brought at length to perfection, (emboldened by 
your wonted fauours) I adventure to make you patron 
of. Thus, sir, you see I haue aduentured to the world, 
with what like or dislike I know not : if it please, which 
I much doubt of) I pray you then be partaker of that 
which I shall esteeme not my least good; if dislike, it 
shall lessen some part of my griefe, if it please you 
to allow but my love : howsoeuer I pray you accept it as 
kindly as I offer it, which though without many protes- 
tations, yet (I assure you) with much desire of your 
honour. Thus vntill such time as I may in some more 
larger measure, make knowne my love to the happie and 
generous familie of the Gooderes (to which I confesse 
my selfe to be beholding, for the most part of my educa- 
tion) I wish you all happiness. 

Michael Deaytoist. 

My object in giving these Dedications is to show Dray- 
ton's connection with Bacon's friends and kinsmen. Yet 
we have no word from Bacon or Drayton that they knew 
each other. The next is to Bacon's kinsman. Sir An- 
thony Cooke: 

77 



TO SIR ANTHONY COOKE. 

VOUCHSAFE to grace these rude vnpolisht rimes, 
Which but for you had slept in sahle night, 
Anl come abroad now in these glorious times, 
Can hardly brooke the purenesse of the light. 
But sith you see their destinie is such, 
That in the world their fortune they must try. 
Perhaps the better shall abide the tuch. 
Wearing your name their gracious liuery, 
Yet these mine owne, I wrong not other men. 
Nor trafifique farther than this happy clime, 
Nor filch from Portes, nor from Petrarchs pen, 
A fault too common in this latter time. 

Diuine sir Philip, I auoueh thy writ, 

I am no pick-purse of anothers wit. 

Chalmers, Ein/Jish Poets, Vol. IV. 



BACON'S CONNECTION WITH THE BUEBAGES 

In Bacon's letter to Sir Thomas Lucy he speaks of 
certain hinds in Warwickshire belonging to his cousin^ 
Sir "William Cooke, as follows : 

''I send you, so required, an Abstract, of the 
Lands of Inheritance; And one Lease of great 
value, which my Kinsman hringeth; with a Note, 
of the Tenures, Values, Contents, and State, truly, 
and perfectly drawen ; whereby you may perceive, 
the Land is good Land, and well countenanced, by 
scope of Acres, Woods, and Royalties; Though the 
Total of the Rents, be set down, as it now goeth, 
without Improvement: In which respect, it may 
somewhat differ, from your first Note. Out of this, 
what he will assure in Joincture, I leave it, to his 
own kindness; For I love not to measure Affec- 
tion." 

Among the lands enumerated I find one parcel occu- 
pied by a Robert Burbage, who may have been a retainer 
of the Cooke family as well as a tenant. (See Appen- 
dix B.) 

As Richard Burbage was the original Hamlet and 
played the leading parts in Shakespeare's tragedies, 
we cannot pass the name of Burbage without comment. 
I have reason to think James Burbage, the builder of the 
first theatre in London, came from St. Albans. In the 
Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 8, p. 139, 1860, I found this 
interesting document, mentioning a Thomas Burbage and 
a Robert Chester. 

79 



Original Documents. 

DESIGNS OF FRANCE AGAINST HOLLAND. 

BY THE QUENE. 

Elizabeth R. — Trusty and wellbilovid we grete you 
well. 

Furst ye shall upon the recept of thies our lettres use 
all thexpedition that ye may possibly in sendyng to the 
partyes named in a Callander herewith sent unto youe, 
and do that ye may, either by sendyng for them unto you 
'or otherwise, to cause hast to be made of the setting furtli 
of the horsemen therein appointid, so as they may be at 
Newcastell before the XVIIP'^ day of January. 

Item if any appointid by us shall at the tyme of our 
lettres cummyng unto youe, not be lyving, or othermse 
so decayd as ye shall perceve that they cannot anywise 
be able to furnishe as they be appointed, then you shall 
c'onsyder how the sayd nombre so failing may be sup- 
plied by others in the same countye not mentioned in 
the Callender, being able thereto and omittid by us. And 
for that purpos we haue also sent to youe certeyn our 
lettres under our signet not directed, which we do auth- 
orize you to direct as ye shall see cause. Wherein you 
may haue good remembrannce to charge such as by the 
statute made in the xxxiii"' yere of our fathers tyme be 
chargid to fynde great horses either by the rate of their 
Landes or by appareilling their wiefes with french- 
hooddes. And such as ye shall fynd chargeable by lawe 
and not willing therto ye shall immedyately certifye 
vs thereof. But if any appointide by vs haue but re- 
raoved his habitation out of tliat countye at the tyme of 
our lettres cummyng unto youe, then our pleasuer is 
that ye shall cause the same to be sent either to himself 
if he be but in the next Shire, or to the Shirif of the 
Shire. 

so 



Item, if ye shall perceve that sum namid liaiie not suf- 
ficient horse for a demylaunce, and yet have a good 
strong gelding able to carry a man with a corslet, a 
borespere, or a javelyn with a pistolet, ye shall in that 
case make choise thereof as ye think metest for our 
service. 

Item, if sum of the persons appointed haue not in 
redynes a corslet or a demilaunce barneys there in the 
countrey to be hastly sent awaye, then in that case, 
rather than to haue our service delayed ye shall send the 
men away with their horses to Newcastel, where they 
shall fynd armure for them vppon reasonnable prices, 
that is to say, a demilaunce at liiis. iiiid., a corslet at xxxs., 
a launce staff at iiis. iiiid., and a pistolet complet at xvis. 
viiid. And in this behalf ye shall do well to gyve order 
to the parties appointed to dely^^er money for the same 
to their horsmen. And ye shall assure the partye, that 
We haue taken such order with our sayd cousyn of Norff., 
that there shalbe a speciall care hade that euery person 
sent furth shall haue his horse, his armurs, and weapon 
well preserved, and retourned if in service they be not 
lost, against which chaunce no remedy can be prouided. 

Item, where we require to haue the nombre of xxvii^* 
horsmen out of that countye, as by the Callender apper- 
eth, vppon which nombre we haue made an accompt of 
service with our sayd cousyn of Norff., our ernest request 
is to youe that in no wise the nombre be made lesse, but 
rathr advaunced, vsing our lettres being not indorsed 
for that purpos, and in any wise to have the third part 
to be furnished with demilaunces as nigh as youe maye 
and the rest to be meet to carry corslets and pistolets; 
And of your doings our pleasuer is ye shall advirtise 
both vs and our sayd cousyn of Norff., both that we may 
see the same how it is expeditid, and he also how he 

81 



may direct his purposes therafter. And tlierin vppon 
knowledge had from our sayd cousyn of tharryvall there- 
of we shall accept your doinges in so good part as ye 
shall think the same well bestowed. 

Finally, our pleasuer is that ye shall import asmoch 
herof to the Shirif of the Shire as ye think meet, and in 
our name use the help of him and is bayllyves for the 
apedy delivery of our Lettres, or for any other message 
thereto requisite. And thies our lettres shalbe your suf- 
ficient warrant in this behalf yeven vnder our signet at 
our Pallaee at Westm. the xxvii*^ of December the seconde 
yere of our reign. (1559.) 

To our trusty and welbeloued Sir Eaff. Rowlet and 
Sir John Butler, Knightes, and to either of them. 

COM. HERTFORD. 

Tucke, esquier 1 launce 

Sir John Butler, knight 1 1. 

Edmunde Twynyhoo, esquier 1 1, 

John Horniolde, esquier 1 1. 

Henry Hyckman and Walter Wythe 1 corslet 

Sir William Skipwithe 1 launce, 1 corslet 

AVilliam Dodd, esquier 1 launce 

Sir Robert Chester, knight 1 1. 

ffrancis Southwell, esquier 1 1. 

Elizabethe Butler, widowe 1 1. 

John Purvey, esquier 1 1. 

John Knighton, esquier 1 1. 

George Dacres, esquier 1 1. 

John Harrington, esquier 1 1. 

Edwarde Basshe, esquier 1 1. 

Thomas Burbage 1 1. 

Nicholas Aylewarde ' 1 1. 

Sir'Richarde Rede, knight 1 1. 

82 



Thomas Rolfe, gent 1 1. 

The Lady Elizabeth Pope 1 1. 

Edwarde Capell, esquier 1 L 

Sir Richard Lee, knight 1 1. 

Sir Eauf Rowlett, knight 1 1. 

Rieharde Raynshawe, esqnier 1 L 

Dorothie Skipwith, widowe 1 1. 

William Barlee, esquier 1 corslet 

The Queen's 'trusty and well beloved Sir Raffe Row- 
lett" was Sheriff of Hertfordshire, and had married 
Bacon's aunt the year before. This gentleman fell heir 
to the estate of Gorhambury and sold it to Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, the Lord Keeper, in 1561. Bacon's aunt, Mar- 
garet Cooke, the '^ Queue's maide," did not survive her 
marriage long, as we see by the following entry written 
by Bacon's uncle, Sir Thomas Hobey, in his Diary, 1558: 

''Monday the xxvij of June, the marriage was 
made and solemnized between me and Elizabeth 
Cooke, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, knight. 
The same day was also her sister Margaret, the 
Queue's maid, maried to Sir Rauf Rowlet, knight, 
who shortlie after departed out of this life."^ 
I have no doubt the Thomas Burbage herein mentioned, 
who furnished "launce," was related to the actor, James- 
Burbage. As early as 1559, Elizabeth's favorite, the Earl 
of Leicester, had a company of players. In 1574 James 
Burbage was in Leicester's company. He built his first 
theatre close to Bishopsgate road in 1576. When Sir 
William Moore of Losely Surrey, in 1595-6, consigned 
to him a large house in Blackfriars, which he converted 
into the Blackfriars Theatre, he signs himself James 
Burbage, gentleman. Yet his son, Cuthbert Burbage, did 
not apply for a coat-of-arms until 1634. He then claimed! 
he belonged to a Hertfordshire family. 

'Camden Miscellany, Vol. X, p. 127. 
S3 



The following- item taken from Burhage and Shake- 
speare Stage, p. 243, connects Francis Bacon directly with 
one William Burbage : 

''Francis Bacon had a case in Chancery against 
a William Burbage, about property left to his 
brother, Anthonv Bacon. See Chancery, D. & 0., 
Book 1590, 32-33, Eliz. f. 533, 621, 626, 684, 691." 
This was in 1590-1. Anthony Bacon died 1601. It 
would be interesting to know more about this suit, and I 
hope it will be followed up by some loving student of the 
Bacon brothers. The Masters in Chancery prior to 1597, 
were : 
tSir William Birde. 
Thomas Legg, 
Sir Edward Stanhope. ^ 

That indefatigable scholar, Mrs. C. C. Stopes Hon, 
F. E. S. L., has ''found a real association of Francis 
Bacon wdth the Theatre." It seems Bacon, in 44 Eliza., 
saved Cutlibert Burbage from bankruptcy and ruin'^ as 
follows : 

"On 17th June, 44 Eliz., Eichard Hudson and 
Thomas Osborne said that 7ione of the matters with 
which Giles Alleyn charged them were true and 
demurred against his bill being brought against 
them. The Court therefore referred the case to 
the consideration of the right worshipful Francis 
Bacon, Esq., and 'he reporteth that the said Bill 
is very uncertain and insufficient, and that no 
further answer needeth to he made thereto.' 

"Here at last I have found a real association of 
Francis Bacon with the Theatre, and I am glad to 
find he supported its owners and friends. But it 
was only, as we have seen, in his legal capacity, 
not a poetic one at all. This case, it may be seen 
by the dates, was running concurrently with 

'Hayden, p. 230. 

^Burhafic and SJial-cfiprarc fitagc, i>p. S4-S5. 

S4 



AUejm's second case at Common Lawagainst Cuth- 
bert Burbage for breach of covenant, which was 
brought in Hilary term, 43 Eliz., heard in Easter 
term, 44 Eliz., 1602, on the Quindene of Easter. 
Cuthbert had defended himself, Giles and Sara 
threw themselves on the country and demanded a 
jury — which was not named — and no decision was 
come to because this Star Chamber case decision 
of June, 1602, covered the proceedings in that 
court, as well as in all others. 

"So, at last, by midsummer 1602, Cuthbert Bur- 
bage cast the millstone of Alleyn's law-suits from 
his neck. The gall must have remained in him for 
long, for much trouble and anxiety had been spent, 
and much more money than would appear on the 
surface. It would be a little alleviation to him that 
Giles Alleyn would have to pay costs in both of 
the latter courts of Star Chamber, and King's 
Bench. But it would not cover the losses to the 
family, or to the Globe Company, for the output 
and the actor Eichard's time and strength must 
have been occupied considerably also." 
And further: 

Jur. 12th June 44 Eliz., per Richard Hudson. 
17th June 44 Eliz., per Thomas Osborne. 
"The joYute and severall demurrers of Richard Hudson 
and Thomas Osborne defendants. By protestation not 
acknowledging nor confessinge anie of the matters con- 
teyned in the said Bill that they are charged with are 
true. 

The Bill of Complaint brought against them and others 
is very untrue, slanderous and uncertain and insufficient 
in Lawe to be answered and they are not tied to make any 
answer for divers faults and namelie for that the matters 
and supposed perjury in the said Bill, in which they are 
charged, are so uncertainly layed, these defendants can- 
not make any answer and the other defendants having 

85 



been served with a process, and having appeared andj 
demnrred ''which demurrer being referred by the Orders; 
of the Court to the right worshipful Francis Bacon Es- 
quire, he uppon perusal and consideration had of the said 
Bill of Complaint hath already reported that the said Bill 
is very uncertayne and insufficient, and that no further 
ansiver nedeth to be made thereto." 

For which causes and for divers other matters and 
defects in the said Bill appearing, they the said defend- 
ants do demur in Law upon the said Bill and pray to be 
dismissed from this honorable court with costs.^ 

It seems that Eichard Hudson mentioned in the above 
lawsuit was from St. Albans. 

One James Hudson was a great friend of the Bacons 
and became a member of Grays Inn in 1603. But he was 
a gentleman and one of the King 's servants. In 1583, by 
agreement of the Readers at Grays Inn, John Hudson of 
the kitchen was given vi' viii*^ towards his marriage.^ 

In Sir Francis Bacon's accounts for 1609 I find: "To- 
Mr. Hudson 29 November 1609 in full paiment of all his 
bills for wine 47 6 5.'^' 

It is gratifying to know Francis Bacon was of use to 
so deserving a man as Cuthbert Burbage, and I have rea- 
son to think Elizabeth, daughter of Cuthbert Burbage, 
married into a family that was related to Bacon. Mil- 
dred Cooke, daughter of William Cooke of Hartshill, 
Warwickshire, married Sir Henry Maxey, Kt., of Brad- 
well Co., Essex. Lady Maxey was a friend of Anne Fit- 
ton (Lady Newdigate).'^ 

Cuthbert Burbage 's daughter married an Amias- 
Maxey. 

'Ihid., p. 227. 

'^Pension Boole Grays Inn. p. 484. 
• 'Ihid., p. 492. 

''Gossip from a Muniment Room, p. 170. 
^Burhage and SliaJccspeare Stage, p. 134. 

SG 



On 23 April, 1G17, Lord Chancellor Bacon writes tlie 
following letter to one Mr. Maxey, to whom he presents 
the rectory of Frome St. Quinton, with the chapel of 
Eversliot in Dorsetshire: 

''After my hearty commendations, I have heard 
of you, as a man well deserving, and of able gifts 
to become profitable in the Church; and there be- 
ing fallen within my gift the rectory of &c which 
seems to be a thing of good value, £18 in the King's 
books, and in a good country, I have thought good 
to make offer of it to you ; the rather that you are 
of Trinity College, whereof myself was some time: 
and my purpose is to make choice of men rather 
by care and inquiry, than by their own suits and 
commendatory letters. So I bid you farewell from 
Dorset House, 23 April 1617." 
The next day Bacon presented the poet, Giles Fletcher, 
also of Trinity College, Cambridge, to the rectory of 
Hellmingham in Suffolk.^ 

Now the beautiful thing about these gifts of Bacon's is 
that he, through ''care and inquiry," sought these gentle- 
men out and rewarded them — something Elizabeth and 
'his kinsmen, the Cecils, had never done for him in all his 
struggles. It is such deeds as the above that show Bacon 
in his true colors, and it is only one out of hundreds I 
could point out. 

I desire the reader to bear in mind the following sad let- 
ters were written during the time the Gesta Grayorum was 
conceived and carried out. The letter from Bacon's 
mother, whose mind was even then failing (she died in 
1610) interests me because I have found that the Robert 
Knight mentioned was a Porter at Grays Inn. Mr. 
Reginald J. Fletcher, M. A., Editor Pension Book of Grays 
Inn, says they did not have a porter until 1590. 

*Spedcling"s Lcttrr.s tniil Life of Bacon, Vol. VI., p. 172. 

ST 



A Eobert Knight's daughter married a Radus Rowlett, 
and Lady Anne Bacon's youngest sister Margaret mar- 
ried Sir Ralph Rowlitt in 1558. 

LADY BACON TO FRANCIS BACON. 

Gray's Inn, Aug. 26, 1594. 
I was so full of back-pain when you came hither, that 
my memory was very slippery. I forgot to mention of 
rents. If you have not, I have not, received Frank's last 
half-year of Midsummer, the first half so long unpaid. 
You will mar your tenants if you suffer them. Mr. Broc- 
quet is suffered by your brother to cosen me and beguile 
me without check. I fear you came too late to London 
for your horse : ever regard them. I desire Mr. Trot to 
hearken to some honest man, and cook too as he may. If 
3^ou can hear of a convenient place I shall be willing if 
it so please God; for Lawson will draw your brother 
wherever he chooses, as I really fear, and that with false 
semblance. God give you both good health and hearts 
to serve him truly, and bless you always with his favour. 
I send you pigeons taken this day, and let blood. Look 
well about you and yours too. I hear that Robert Knight 
is but sickly. I am sorry for it. I do not write to my 
Lord-Treasurer, because you like to stay. Let this letter 
be unseen. Look very well to your health ; sup not, nor 
sit up late. Surely I think your drinking to bedwards 
hindereth your and your brother's digestion very much. 
I never knew any but sickly that used it, besides being ill 
for heads and eyes. Observe well, yet in time. Farewell 
in Christ. 

A. Bacon. 

There were several Lawsons, members of Grays Inn. 
The one mentioned by Lady Anne may have been one of 

ss 



the Gentlemen Pensioners in the Gesta Grayorum. Her 
sentence, "I desire Mr. Trot to hearken to some honest 
man and 'cook' too as he may," may refer to her nephew 
Cooke who was one of Bacon's Suretys: 

FRANCIS BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 
My cousin Cook is some four days home, and ap- 
pointeth towards Italy that day sennight. I pray take 
care for the money to be paid over within four or five 
days. The sum you will remember is 150Z. I hear nothing 
from the Court in mine own business. I steal to Twick- 
enham, purposing to return this night, else I had visited 
you as I came from the town. Thus in haste I leave you 
to God's preservation. 

Your entire loving brother, 

Fk. Bacon. 

Bacon often stole to Twickenham, which he called his 
"earthly paradise"; but on Jan. 28 he is back at Grays 
Inn attending the Pensions. I find he was absent from 
them during the months of April, May, and June, as well 
as the summer of 1594, the year in which Shakespeare 
brought out his Lucrece. He was present again in Nov. 
18, 1594. 

On Nov. 20, 1594, the Pensions were held at St. Albans. 
It would be pleasant to know they were held at Gorham- 
bury. Bacon's country home. 

Dixon, referring to this period, says : 

"Anthony is not now at Gray's Inn Square, having 
taken a house in Bishopsgate-street, a fashionable part 
of the city, near the famous Bull Inn, where plays are 
performed before cits and gentlemen, very much to the 
delight of Essex and his jovial crew, but very much, as 
Lady Ann conceives, to the peril of her son's soul. The 
good mother cannot put old heads on young necks, say 

so 



what she will. ^'I am sorry," she writes to her easy 
elder-born, "your brother and you charge yourselves 
with superfluous horses ; the wise will laugh at you ; being 
but trouble to you both; besides your debts, long journeys, 
and private persons. Earls be earls." There is the rub. 
Lady Ann knows, and does not love, these madcap earls. 

By help of Cecil, and the Vice-Chamberlain, Fulke 
Oreville, Bacon succeeds so far as to get the nomination 
of Solicitor put off. For more than a year the situation 
undergoes no change. 

Bacon is sick of heart; looks wan and thin, as all 
the world takes note. The heady Earl has proved to him 
a fatal friend." 

Perhaps Anthony Bacon who was now living in 
Bishopsgate Street had met Shakespeare, who, we are 
told, had a house also in Bishopsgate. 

We will now turn to Spedding's Letters and Life of 
Bacon for the following letters and memorandum, for it 
is drawing very near the time when the Sports and revels 
in the Gesta Grayorum. are to be given at Grays Inn, 
and they show another side of Francis Bacon, whom 
many to this day call " dryasdust Bacon." 

Spedding says: 

1594 "Michaelmas Term passed; winter set in early 
with frost and snow; and still no Solicitor ap- 
pointed. Meanwhile the burden of debt and the 
difficulty of obtaining necessary supplies was daily 
increasing. Anthony's correspondence during 
this autumn is full of urgent applications to var- 
ious friends for loans of money, and the following 
memorandum shows that much of his own neces- 
sity arose from his anxiety to supply the neces- 
sities of his brother." Vol. 1, p. 321. 



''Memorandum. That the fourth of October, '94, at 
my brother coming to me after a fit of the stone, and 
falling into talk of the money he ought me as principal 
debt, he acknowledged to be due to me £650; whereof 
£200 I borrowed of Mr. Mills and paid it him again; 
£200 of the money I had of Alderman Spencer; £100 
before he went his journey into the north, £60 in money 
and £40 for my coach-horses; £150 after his return; 
besides many other pajnuents to Mr. Senhouse and 
others." Ibid., p. 322. 

This "journey into the north" was taken at the Queen's 
command. She litle dreamed these two poor gentlemen 
had to borrow the money for the journey. If she did 
she cared not. Nor did she recall the vast sum it cost 
their father Sir Nicholas Bacon to entertain her four 
days at Gorhambury in 1573. 

FRANCIS BACON TO HIS BROTHER ANTHONY. 

1594 Bkothek : 

I did move you to join with me in security for 
£500, which I did purpose then dividedly to have 
taken up, £300 elsewhere, and £200 by way of for- 
bearance, both to the satisfaction of Peter Van- 
lore (?). Hereunto, I thank you, you assented. 
I have now agreed with Peter for the taking up 
of the whole of one man, according to which I send 
you the bonds. And whereas you shall find the 
bond to be of £600, which is £100 more ; true it is 
that first the jewel cost £500 and odd, as shall 
appear to you by my bond. Next I promise you 
immediately (for we are agreed so) to free you 
of one hundreth, for which you stand bound to 
Mr. William Fleetwood. So in haste I commend 

91 



you to God's good preservation: from my chamber 
in Gray's Inn, tins lOtli of December. 
Your entire loving brother, 
Fe. Bacon. 

Ibid., p. 324. 

THE SAME TO THE SAME. 
Brother : 

I have written a few words to Sir Antonio Perez, 
which if you allow I pray seal and deliver to my servant 
to bear. I did doubt I should not see him of these two 
or three days; which made me use litteris praecursoriis. 
I have since considered of a marvellous apt man to be 
joined in trust, in that the world taketh note of him for 
true honesty, and is obliged to my Lord's house, being 
used in near confidence by Mr. Secretary, It is Mr. 
William Gerrard of Gray's Inn, who also by reason of 
his abode is at hand to repair to me for conference. If 
your opinion concur, let us rest upon him in case the 
occasion be given. Qd. erit e re domini. So in haste, 
desirous to hear of your good night's rest, I further 
salute you with Mr. Milles his new bond sine litura. 
From my chamber at Gray's Inn, this 13th of December, 
1594. 

Your entire loving brother, 

Fr. Bacon. 

—Ihid p. 325. 

Spedding adds: 

^'I trust they will not mum nor mask nor sinfully 
revel" (so writes Lady Bacon to her son Anthony, on 
the 5th of December)^ 'at Gray's Inn. Who were some- 
time counted first, God grant they wane not daily and 
deserve to be named last." But it was too late for 

92 



praying. Tlie youth of Gray's Inn were already deep in 
sinful consultation. Their revels, in which they used, 
excel, had been intermitted for the last three or four 
years, and they were resolved to redeem the time by 
producing" this year something out of the common way. 
Their device was to turn Gray's Inn, '^witli the consent 
and advice of the Readers and Ancients," into the sem- 
blance of a court and kingdom, and to entertain each 
other during the twelve days of Christmas licence with 
playing at kings and counsellors. Ibid, Vol. 1, p. 326. 

The years 1592, 1593, and 1594, were particularly sad 
and distressing ones for Lady Anne Bacon and her gifted 
sons, Anthony and Francis Bacon. Here is a letter 
from Francis to his mother which was written about the 
time Shakespeare brought out Venus and Adonis. 

FRANCIS BACON TO LADY BACON. 

From Gray's Inn, April 16, 1593. 
My duty most humbly remembered. I assure myself 
that your ladyship, as a wise and kind mother to us both, 
will neither find it strange nor unwise that, tendering 
first my brother's health, which I know by mine own 
experience to depend not a little upon a free mind, and 
then his credit, I presume to put your ladyship in re- 
membrance of your motherly offer to him the same day 
you departed, which was that to help him out of debt 
you would be content to bestow your whole interest in 
markes upon him. The which unless it would please your 
ladyship to accomplish out of hand, I have just cause to 
fear that my brother will be put to a very shrewde plunge, 
either to forfeit his reversion to Harwin (!) or else to 
undersell it very much; for the avoiding of both which 
great inconveniences I see no other remedy than your 
ladyship surrender in time, the formal drafte whereof I 



refer to my brother himself, whom I have not any way as 
yet made acquainted with this my motion, neither mean 
to do till I hear from you. The ground whereof being- 
only a brotherly care and affection, I hope your ladyship 
will think and accept of it accordingly : beseeching you to 
believe that being so near and dear part of me as he is, 
that cannot but be a grief unto me to see a mind that 
hath given so sufficient proof of wit (?) in having brought 
forth many good thoughts for the general to be over- 
burdened and cumbered with a care of clearing his par- 
ticular estate. Touching myself, my diet, I thank God, 
hitherto hath wrought good effect, and am advised to con- 
tinue this whole month, not meddling with any purgative 
physic more than I must needs, which will be but a trifle 
during my whole diet; and so I most humbly take my 
leave. 

F.B. 

Dixon in his Personal History of Lord Bacon says of 
this sad year for the loving brothers : 

"No young fellow of Gray's Inn, waiting for the tide 
to flow, is sharper set for funds than the young knight 
for Middlesex or his elder brother. Anthony tries to 
raise his rents, and some of the men about him — godless 
rogues, as Lady Bacon says — propose that he shall let his 
farms to the highest bidders. Goodman Grinnell, who 
has the land at Barly, pays less rent than he ought: let 
him go out and a better man come in. But Goodman 
Grinnell speeds with his long face to Lady Ann. 
"Wliat!" cries the good lady to her son; "turn out the 
Grinnells ! Why, the Grinnells have lived at Barly these 
hundred and twenty years!" So the brothers have to 
look elsewhere. Bonds are coming due. A famous 
money-lender lives in the city, Spencer by name, rich as 

94 



a Jew and close as a miser ; liim they go to, cap in hand, 
and with honeyed words. The miser is a good miser, 
and allows his bond to lie. Francis writes to him from 
his brother Edward's house at Twickenham Park, to 
which he has removed from Gray's Inn for the benefit of 
country air." 

FEANCIS BACON TO MR. SPENCER. 

Twickenham Park, Sept. 19, 1593. 
Good Mr. Spencer, 

Having understood by my man your kind offer to send 
my brother and me our old bond, we both accept the same 
with hearty thanks, and pray you to cause a new to be 
made for half a year more, which I will both sign and 
seal before one Booth, a scrivener, here at Isleworth, 
and deliver it him to your use, which you know will be as 
good in law as though you were here present. True it is 
that I cannot promise that my brother should be here at 
that time to join with me, by reason of his daily attend- 
ance in court, by occasion whereof I am to be your sole 
debtor in the new bond. As for the mesne profits thereof, 
you will receive them jiresently. I have given charge to 
my man to deliver it. And so with my right hearty com- 
mendations from my brother and myself, with like thanks 
for your good will and kindness towards us, which we al- 
ways shall be ready to acknowledge when and wherein we 
may, I commit you to the protection of the Almighty. 
Your assured loving friend, 

Fr. Bacon. 

Dixon continues: 

"Bacon lies sick the whole summer of 1593, as a note 
to his old friend Lady Paulett shows. Her ladyship, who 
was so kind to him in his younger days in France, is now 
a widow; his good friend Sir Amias sleeping the great 

95 



sleep under a splendid tomb in the chancel of St. Mar- 
tin's church. Bacon is proud and glad to do the widow 
service." 

FRANCIS BACON TO LADY PAULETT. 

Twickenham Park, Sept. 23, 1593. 
Madam, 

Being not able myself, by reason of my long languish- 
ing infirmity, to render unto your ladyship by a personal 
visitation the respect I owe unto your ladyship, I would 
not fail to acquit some part of my debt by sending this 
bearer, my servant, expressly to know how your ladyship 
doth, which I beseech God may be no worse than I 
wish and have just cause to wish, considering your lady- 
ship's ancient and especial kindness towards me. Which 
if I have not hitherto acknowledged it hath been only 
for want of fit occasions, but no way of dutiful affection, 
as I hope in time, with God's help, I shall be able to 
verify by good effects towards the young gentleman Mr. 
Blount, your nephew, or any other that appertains unto 
your ladyship. This is, good madam, much less than 
you deserve and yet all I can offer, which, notwithstand- 
ing, I hope you will accept, not that it is aught worth of 
itself, but in respect of the unfeigned good will from 
whence it proceedeth. And so, with my humble and right 
hearty commendations unto your good ladyship, I beseech 
God to bless you with increase of comfort in mind and 
body, and admit you to his holy protection. 

Your ladyship's assured and ready in all kind affec- 
tion to do you service. 

Fr. Bacon. 

This Lady was the wife of Sir Amias Poulet, Eliza- 
beth's Ambassadore to France, with whom Bacon went 

96 



Abroad in 1576 at the age of sixteen. Sir Amias Poulet 
was Keeper of Mary, Queen of Scots, when in 1586 
Elizabeth hinted at her assassination, and his well-known 
letter to Sir Francis Walsingham wherein he says : ' ' God 
forbid that I should make so pour a shipwreck of my 
conscience, or leave so great a blot to my poor posterity, 
to shed blood without law or warrant." I have often 
wondered if this ''Mr. Blount," Lady Poulet 's nephew, 
to whom Bacon refers, was the Ed. Blount who in 1623 
added sixteen of Shakespeare's plays to the first folio 
which had never been printed before or given to other 
men? 

This suggestion may be worth looking into. Other 
letters from Francis Bacon follow, Dixon says : 

' ' Duns weigh on the two brothers. Here are two notes 
to Lady Ann, both from Francis, full of the same sad 
romance of love and debt. One runs : 

FRANCIS BACON TO LADY BACON. 

From the Court, Oct. 3, 1593. 
Madam, 

I received this afternoon at the Court your letter, 
after I had sent back your horse and written to you this 
morning. And for my brother's kindness, it is accus- 
tomed; he never having yet refused his security for me, 
as I, on the other side, never made any difficulty to do. 
the like by him, according to our several occasions. And 
therefore, if it be not to his own disfurnishing, which I 
reckon all one with mine own want, I shall receive good 
ease by that hundred pounds; specially your ladyship 
of your goodness being content it shall be repaid of Mr. 
Boldroe's debt, which it pleased you to bestow upon me. 
And my desire is, it shall be paid to Knight at Gray's 
Inn, who shall receive order from me to pay two fifths 

97 



[ ?] (wliich I wish had been two hundred) where I owe, 
and where it presseth me most. Sir John Fortescue is 
not yet in Court; both to him and otherwise I will be 
mindful of Mr. Downing 's cause and liberty with the first 
opportunity. Mr. Nevill, my cousin, though I be further 
distant than I expected, yet I shall have an apt occasion 
to remember. To my cousin Kemp I am sending. But 
that would rest between your ladyship and myself, as 
you said. Thus I commend your ladyship to God's good 
providence. 

Your Ladyship's most obedient, 

Fr. Bacon. 

FEANCIS BACON TO LADY BACON. 

Twickenham Park, Nov. 2, 1593. 

Madam, 

I most humbly thank your ladyship for your letter 
and sending your man Bashawe to visit me, who pur- 
poseth with God's help so soon as possibly I can to do 
my duty to your ladyship, but the soonest I doubt will 
be to-morrow or next Monday come sennight. My 
brother, I think, will go to Saint Albans sooner, with 
my Lord Keeper, who hath kindly offered him room in 
his obscure lodgings there, as he hath already resigned 
unto him the use of his chamber in the Court. God 
forbid that your ladyship should trouble yourself with 
any extraordinary care in respect of our presence, which 
if we thought should be the least cause of your discontent- 
ment, we would rather absent ourselves than occasion 
any way your ladyship disquietness. As for Sotheram, 
I have been and shall be always ready to hear dutifully 
your ladyship's motherly admonitions touching him or 
any other man or matter, and to respect them as I ought. 

98 



And so, with remembrance of my hmnble duties, I be- 
seech God to bless and preserve yonr ladyship. 

F. B. 

Dixon in Ms "Personal Life of Bacon," says: Essex 
is poor. Dress, dinners, horses, courtesans exhaust his 
coffers. If he cannot pay in coin he will pay in place. 
His servant Francis Bacon shall be made the Queen's 
Solicitor. Essex swears it. . . . Egerton and Fortescue 
urge his suit with admiring friendship on the Queen 
Every one at the bar, save only Coke, admits his claim 

to place At first the Queen is gracious; extols 

Bacon's eloquence and wit, while doubting if he be deep 
in law. It only needs that his nomination shall be made 
in the proper way; because it is the best, not because this 
or that lord of her Court may wish it made. This does, 
not please the Earl. Pledged to make Bacon's fortune,, 
he will not stoop to see his own debts paid by another 
hand. The work must be his own : ' ' Upon me, ' ' he says^ 
"must lie the labour of his establishment; upon me the- 
disgrace will light of his refusal." 

The Queen gets angry at this selfish pride. When he- 
talks of Bacon she shuts her ears; but night and day he- 
hammers at the name ; doing his full of mischief ; fretting 
and sulking till he drives her mad. Never were good in- 
tentions worse bestowed. A brief note from the Earl 
to Bacon brings the impatient Queen and her importunate- 
suitor on the scene : — 

THE EARL OF ESSEX TO FRANCIS BACON. 
Gray's Inn, May 1, 1594. 

Sir, 

The Queen did yesternight fly the gift, and I do wish,, 
if it be no impediment to the cause you do handle to- 
morrow, you did attend again this afternoon. I will be 



at tlie Court in the evening, and go with Mr. Vice-Cham- 
berlain, so as, if you fail before we come, yet afterwards 
I doubt not but lie or I shall bring you together. This 
I write in haste because I would have no opportunity 
omitted in this point of access. I wish to you as to my- 
self, and rest 

Your most affectionate friend, 

Essex. 

Dixou continues : The Queen will not see him. 

Bacon is surprised and hurt. His hopes for the mo- 
ment dashed, he perceives no chance of succeeding even 
at a better time, unless the Queen can be induced to leave 
the Solicitorship for the present void. To this end he 
applies to his cousin Cecil. Here is his note : 

FRANCIS BACON TO SIR ROBERT CECIL. 
My most honorable good Cousin, 

Your honour in your wisdom doth well perceive that 
my access at this time is grown desperate in regard of 
the hard terms that as well the Earl of Essex as Mr. 
Vice-Chamberlain, who were to have been the means 
thereof, stand in with her in acceding to their occasions. 
And therefore I am now only to fall upon that point of 
delaying and preserving the matter entire till a better 
constellation, which, as it is not hard, as I conceive, con- 
sidering the proving business and the instant Progress, 
&c., so I recommend in special to your honour's care, who 
in sort assured me thereof, and upon [whom] now in 
my lord of Essex' absence I have only to rely. And if 
it be needful, I humbly pray you to move my Lord your 
father to lay his sure hand to the same delay. And so 
I wish you all increase of honour. 

Your poor kinsman in faithful prayers and duty, 

Francis Bacon. 

100 



Cecil, who knows that the Earl, and none but the Earl, 
stands in the way of his cousin's rise, writes back, on 
the same sheet of paper, in the left corner, these words : — 

SIR ROBERT CECIL TO FRANCIS BACON. 

Cousin, 

I do think nothing cuts the throat more of your present 
access than the Earl's being somewhat troubled at this 
time. For the delaying, I think it not hard ; neither shall 
there want my best endeavours to make it easy, of which 
I hope you shall not need to doubt. By the judgment 
which I gather of divers circumstances confirming my 
opinion, I protest I suffer with you in mind that you are 
thus yet gravelled; but time will founder all your com- 
petitors and set you on your feet, or else I have little 
understanding. ' ' Ibid. 

Thus Sir Robert Cecil, the lago of Elizabeth's Court, 
writes to his poor kinsman. "Mr. Vice Chamberlain" was 
Sir Thomas Heneage of Gesta Grayorum interest. He 
had helped many of Elizabeth's favorites to gain her 
good graces, namely Leicester, Hatton, Essex, and others. 
To return to Mr. Dixon who says: 

"For the first time in his life Bacon is now a stranger 
at the court. Lady Ann lies sick at Gorhambury ; so sick, 
that the "good Christian and Saint of God," as her son 
affectionately calls her, makes up her soul for death. Two 
of her household have been snatched away from her side 
by plague or fever. She is down with ague. Bacon 
wrestles with her resignation, praying her to use all helps 
and comforts that are good for her health, to the end 
that she ma}^ be spared to her children and her friends, 
and to that church of God which has so much need of 
lier. Here is the letter from which these particulars are 
derived" : 

101 



FRANCIS BACON TO LADY BACON. 

June 9, 159i. 

''My Iniinble duty remembered, I was sorry to imder- 
stand by Goodman Sotlieram that your ladyship did find 
any weakness, which I hope was but caused by the season 
and weather, which waxeth more hot and faint. I was 
not sorry, I assure your ladyship, that you came not up,, 
in regard that the stirring at this time of year, and the 
place where you should lie not being very open nor fresh, 
might rather hurt your ladyship than otherwise. And 
for anything to be passed to Mr. Trot, such is his kind- 
ness, as he demandeth it not; and therefore, as I am to 
thank your ladyship for your willingness, so it shall not 
be needful but upon such an occasion as may be without 
your trouble, which the rather may be because I purpose,. 
God willing, to come down, and it be but for a day, to visit 
your ladyship, and to do my duty to you. In the mean 
time I pray your health, as you have done the part of a 
good Christian and Saint of God in the comfortable pre- 
paring for your duty. So nevertheless, I pray, deny not 
your body the due, nor your children and friends, and the 
church of God, which hath use of you, but that you enter 
not into further conceit than is cause; and withal use 
all comforts and helps that are good for your health and 
strength. In truth I have heard Sir Thomas Scudamore 
often complain, after his quartain had ceased, that he 
found such a heaviness and swelling under his ribs that 
he thought he was buried under earth all from the waist ; 
and therefore that accident no bad incident. Thus I com- 
mend your ladyship to God's good preservation from: 
grief." 

Your ladyship's most obedient son, 

Fe. Bacon. 

102 



SIR JOHX FASTOLF AND THE BACON FAMILY 

"On the first, as on every subsequent, produc- 
tion of 'Henry IV' the main public interest was 
concentrated neitlier on the King nor on his son, 
nor on Hotspur, but on the chief of Prince Hal's 
riotous companions. At the outset the propriety 
of that great creation was questioned on a political 
or historical ground of doubtful relevance. 
Shakespeare in both parts of 'Henry IV' original- 
ly named the chief of the prince's associates after 
Sir John Oldcastle, a character in the old play. 
But Henry Brooke, eighth lord Cobham, who suc- 
ceeded to the title early in 1597, and claimed de- 
scent from the historical Sir John Oldcastle, the 
Lollard leader, raised objection; and when the first 
part of the play was printed by the acting-com- 
pany's authority in 1598 ('newly corrected' in 
1599), Shakespeare bestowed on Prince Hal's tun- 
bellied follower the new and deathless name of 
Falstaff. A trustworthy edition of the second part 
of 'Henry IV' also appeared with Falstaff 's name 
substituted for that of Oldcastle in 1600. There 
the epilogue expressly denied that Falstaff had 
any characteristic in common with the martyr Old- 
castle. "Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not 
the man. But the substitution of the name 'Fal- 
staff' did not pass without protest. ' It hazily re- 
called Sir John Fastolf, an historical warrior who 
had already figured in 'Henry VI' and was owner 
at one time of the Boar's Head Tavern in South- 
Avark; according to traditional stage directions, the 
prince and his companions in 'Henry IV' fre- 
quent the Boar's Head, Eastcheap."' 

In Bevil Higgon's ^'A ^^hort View of English History/^ 
1748, he states that Sir John Fastolf, of Henry IV's time 
had "been ridiculed and misrepresented by the pen of a 
certain i3oet for an original of buffoonery and cowardise for 

^Sidney Lee's Life of Shakespeare, p. 169. Ed. 1898. 
103 



no other reason bnt that some of his posterity had dis- 
obliged Mr. Sliakespear." 

I have shown in these pages that the Bacon famil}- mar- 
ried with the Fastolfs, but nowhere have I found tliat they 
(the Fastolfs) were in any way connected with the Shake- 
speares. If, as I believe, Bacon was Shakespeare's patron, 
it may readily be conceived why the poet held Sir John 
Fastolf up to ridicule. I have tried to show that ^'0/d- 
custW (the original appellation given to Fastolf in the 
play, in no way was meant by the poet as a slur upon the 
martyred Lollord, but that it was poking fun at the "old 
lad of the castle," as Prince Henry calls him. Halliwell 
Philips, in his ^'Outlines" says, "Fastolf was sometimes 
called Falstaff even in strictly historical works." 

Henry Brooke, eighth lord Cobham, may have been 
joined by Secretary Robert Cecil in his objections to 
the name of Sir John Oldcastle being used. Cecil mar- 
ried Elizabeth Brooke, Lord Cobham 's sister. And both 
Cecil and Lord Cobham hated the Earl of Essex, who 
so delighted in Shakespeare's plays. At any rate the 
poet substituted the name of Sir John Fastolf for that 
of Sir John Oldcastle. I am convinced Shakespeare 
never intended to cast a stain upon the Lollard leader, 
who only bore the title of Lord Cobham by courtesy of 
his wife. But why the name Falstaff should have raised 
a protest is another story. It seems to me that from 
the first Shakespeare, in his historical dramas Henry IV., 
Henry V. and Henry VI. did intend to gird at Sir John 
Fastolf, of Caister Castle, Norfolk. The poet who asks, 
' 'What's in a name?" and gives the world all we call 
Shakespeare, like a wizard, transposes a letter in the 
name of Fastolf, and the imperishable I'alstaff is born 
to make perpetual mirth and laughter for all mankind. 
Shakespeare, w^ho knew Holinshed and the ancient Eng- 

1(M 



]isii Cliroiiieles by heart, iimst also have known many 
interesting details of the personal characters of those 
men of note Who fought or took part in the cruel civil 
wars of the Roses. The poet lived among those whose 
ancestors felt and suffered the burdens of those wars. 
I feel certain Shakespeare had access to many private 
letters and documents that were preserved in the fami- 
lies of men of affairs connected with England's great 
past, wherein he found acts and facts not mentioned in 
history. 

The student must be familiar with the Paston Letters 
to thoroughly appreciate the character of Sir John Fal- 
staff in Henry IV., Henry V. and Henry VI. The Fal- 
staff of the Merry Wives of Windsor must not 
be confounded with the Sir John of the historical 
plays. Except in the name, there is no relation be- 
tween them. Bacon's scholarly grandfather. Sir An- 
thony Cooke, no doubt preserved letters and documents 
greatly exceeding in number and value those in the 
Paston family, covering the same period. Sir Anthony 
Cooke's grandfather. Sir Thomas Cooke, knight of 
the Bath and Mayor of London, was a contemporary of 
Sir John Fastolf 's. I have reason to think he and Fas- 
tolf were rivals on the high seas for foreign trade. 

1 am convinced Francis Bacon learned from family 
documents the true character of Sir John Fastolf. Not 
alone from his maternal ancestors, the Cooke's, but from 
the Bacon and Fastolf family records and letters, and 
that these original docum.ents did not flatter him whom 
Prince Hal, afterwards Henry V., dubbed "My old lad 
of the Castle."^ 

Dawson Turner states Henry Y. gave Sir John Fastolf 

=1 Hen. IV, A 1. S. 2. 

105 



license to fortify a dwelling in Caister, "so strong as 
himself could devise." It must be remembered Fastolf 
was nearly seventy years old when he began to build 
Caister Castle, He seems to have had a mania for cas- 
tles all his life. Henry V. trusted him with the Castle 
of Veires in Gascony. In 1425 he took the Castle of Silly- 
Guillem. In 1408 he married Milicent, widow of Sir 
Stephen Scrope, who brought him Castle Crombe in Wilt- 
shire and other large estates. "These he turned to his 
own account, to the injury of her son and heir by her 
first husband, Stephen Scrope. ' '^ 

Francis Bacon's great-great-grandfater, Sir Thomas 
Cooke, like Fastolf, owned many ships upon the sea, 
Cooke having "fishing weirs on the Colne." We are 
told that Fastolf, to relieve the garrison at Orleans, suc- 
cessfully intercepted a convoy of fish, "and for purposes 
•of defence used the barrels of herrings, whence the battle 
obtained its popular name, 'the Battle of the Herrings.'"* 

Both Sir Thomas Cooke and Sir John Fastolf 
owned several taverns in London. Sir Thomas Cooke 
•owned the Swan and Garland in Eastcheap, the Bear and 
Dolphin^ in St. Olave Street, and the Mary Magdaline in 
Southwark. While Sir John Fastolf owned the Boar's 
Head Tavern in Southwark, which Shakespeare in Henry 
IV. transfers to Eastcheap. In the poet's time a Boar's 
Head was near the Globe and owned by the old theatrical 
manager, Henslowe. Doubtless Shakespeare, Ben Jon- 
son and many of their worthies often held merry meet- 
ings under its roof. 

In 1450, when Sir John Fastolf was hiding in his man- 
sion in Southwark from the rebel Jack Cade's fury. Sir 

w. N. B. 
*D. N. B. 

'The Hostess says to Falstaff: "Thou dicVst swear to me upon a 
parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin chamber," 2 Hen. IV. II. I. 

106 



Thomas Cooke was acting as Jack Cade's agent in Lon- 
don, trying to bring order out of chaos, while King 
Henry VI. fled to Kenilworth. 

Edward Poynings, Cooke's friend, was Cade's carver 
and sewer. He afterwards married the sister of John 
Paston. 

But who protested against the name of Falstatf being 
used in the jjlays! I can think of no one but the Paston 
family or some one connected with them, to w^hom Sir 
John Fastolf willed all his vast estates, although they 
were not related to him by blood. It was believed, too, by 
many in those days that Sir John Fastolf 's will had been 
forged, and that the Pastons had no right to his wealth. 
Francis Bacon's enemy. Attorney General Coke, had 
married Bridget Paston,^ who brought him more than 
£30,000 in money and left him enormous estates besides. 
The boundless greed of Sir John Fastolf had bennefitted 
none but the Pastons. To his own kinsmen he left noth- 
ing. Oldys says the Fastolf s ''were descended from an 
ancient and famous English family in Norfolk, which 
had tlourislied there before the concinest." The Bacon's 
were related to the Fastolf family. Thomas Fastolf, son 
and heir of John Fastolf of Pettau, County Suffolk, mar- 
ried Alice, daughter of John Bacon, Esq., of Hessett, 
County Suffolk. The said Thomas Fastolf and Alice, 
his wife, had issue — John, son and heir; Lionell, George, 
Thomas and five daughters. - 

It is not likely these descendants of Sir John 
I'astolf protested against his being held up to scorn on 
the stage, or that the Bacon family had any reason to 
regret it. As I said before, no one but the Pastons or 
Coke would mind it. The Paston's also came into posses- 
sion of Gresham Manor, which had belonged to one Ed- 



^Fenn. Paston Letters, 11. 158. 
Visitation of Suffolk, 15G1-1C12. 



107 



muiid Bacon,^ in Edward II. 's time. Margery, daughter 
and heir of Edmund Bacon, married Sir William Mo- 
loyns. Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet Chaucer, mar- 
ried the i>reat-iiranddaughter of Edmund Bacon, and their 
daughter Alice became the wife of William de la Poole, 
Earl of Suffolk, afterwards created first Duke of Nor- 
folk by Henry VI. for bringing Princess Margaret from 
France. 

Both Shakespeare and Drayton make Suffolk the lover 
of Margaret"^ before she came to England to become the 
Queen of Henry VI. It has been said Shakespeare in 
the following lines paid a compliment to the Earl of 
Essex: 

''But now behold in the quick forge and working- 
house of thought 
How London doth pour out her citizens. 
The Mayor and all his brethren in best sort, 
Like to the senators of antique Bome, 
With the plebians swarming at their heels. 
Go forth and fetch their conquering Ceesar in : 
As, by a lower but loving likelihood,^ 
Were now the general of our gracious Empress 
(As in good time he may) from Ireland coming, 
Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, 
How many would the peaceful city quit, 
To welcome him!" 

Little did Shakespeare dream that Essex would one 
day put the city to that test wherein he found it wanting 
in sympathy, and by his rash act loose all he held dear 
upon earth. His enemies, Robert Cecil, Lord Col)ham, 
the Earl of Oxford, and Sir Walter Raleigh, checkmated 
him at every move, so that he never regained the fickle 
favor of Elizabeth. 

Wol T. p. 2S. Paston Letters Ed. hij (hunJncr, Edlnhitrgh, 1910. 
■*/. Hen VI. A. v., s U: 
'Hen. V. A. V. 

108 



In the same drama of Henry V., A. iv. S. vii., I think 
the poet paid the gallant Earl of Essex another compli- 
ment out of the mouth of Fluellen, the Welsh knight, 
whom King Henry accosts on the field after the battle of 
Agincourt : 

K. Hen. I tell thee truly, herald, 

I know not if the day be ours, or no ; 
For yet a many of your horsemen peer, \ 

And gallop o'er the field. 

Mont. The day is yours. 

K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength, 
for it! 
What is this castle call'd, that stands hard by? 

Mont. They call it Agincourt. 

K. Hen. Then call we this the field of Agincourt, 
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. 

Flu. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't 
please your majesty, and your great-uncle Ed- 
ward the plack prince of Wales, as I have read 
in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here 
in France. 

K. Hen. They did, Fluellen. 

Flu. Your majesty says very true. If your 
majesty is remembered of it, the Welshmen did 
goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, 
wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps, which your 
majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable 
padge of the service ; and, I do believe, your majes- 
tay takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint 
Tavy's day. 

K. Henry. I wear it for a memorable honour : 
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 

Flu. All the water in Wye cannot wash your ma- 
jesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell 
you that : Got pless it, and preserve it, as long as 
it pleases his grace, and his majesty too ! 

109 



The Earl of Essex descended from that noble and 
illustrions Walter Devereux, who was created Viscount 
of Hereford by Henry VI. His ancestors owned, among* 
other large possessions in Wales, the splendid castle in 
Carmarthenshire. The love Essex bore to letters greatly 
endeared him to the poets of his day, and we are told he 
saved Spencer from starving and buried the poet in 
Westminster Abbey when neglected by all the great ones 
he had immortalized with his pen — even by the Queen 
herself. 

In Henry V. the Welsh knight, Fluellen, has the ut- 
most contempt for Sir John Falstaff. For the wrong 
the real Sir John Fastolf did his kinsman and ward, 
Thomas Fastolf, the reader is referred to the Paston Let- 
ters edited by Gairdner. Mr. Dawson Turner, who is 
very tender of the memory of Fastolf,^ says: 

"Sir John, with Lord Talbot and Lord Scales, 
fled at the battle of Patay; and this circumstance 
appears to furnish the only actual point of simi- 
larity between the imaginary Falstaff of the dra- 
matist and the real individual pourtrayed in his- 
tory. Towards the conclusion of the first part of 
his Henry the Sixth, Shakespeare presents to the 
spectator that youthful monarch surrounded by 
his nobles, receiving the homage of the governor 
of Paris; while Falstaff presses forward, hot with 
haste, eager to tender his allegiance. The Lord 
Tall)ot, between whom and the knight there seems 
to have been a rivalry, not unmixed with personal 
animosity, and who was probably not sorry for 
the opportunity publicly to fix upon his name the 
disgrace of the defeat at Patay, bursts on this 
occasion into the following bitter taunts, which 
even the presence of the sovereign had not the 
power to restrain." 

''Shame on the Duke of Burgundy and thee! 

"Sketch of the Histori/ of Caister Castle, p. 28. Loud. 18G2. 
110 



"I vow'd, base kniglit, when I did meet thee next, 
''To tear the garter from thy craven leg {plucking 

it off) 
"Which I have done, becanse unworthily 
"Thou wast installed in that high degree: — 
"Pardon me, princely Henry, and the rest, 
"This dastard, at the battle of Patay, 
"When bnt in all I was six thousand strong, 
"And that the French were almost ten to one, — 
"Before we met, or that a stroke was given, 
"Like to a trusty squire, did run away; 
"In which assault we lost twelve hundred men: 
"Myself, with divers gentlemen beside, 
"Were there surprised and taken prisoners. 
"Then, judge, great lords, if I have done amiss ; 
"Or whether that such cowards ought to wear 
"This ornament of knighthood, — yea, or no. 

"A'. Hen. Stain to thy countrymen! thou hear'st 
thy doom! 
"Be packing, therefore, thou that wast a knight: 
"Henceforth we banish thee on pain of death." 

{Exit Falstaff.) 
Mr. Turner continues: 

"It appears to be upon the authority of Mon- 
strelet alone that Shakespeare relies for the sup- 
posed fact of Sir John Fastolfe's having been 
stripped of the Garter. So foul a stain upon his 
character, it may safely be said, had no existence, 
excepting in the pages of the chronicler, supported 
perhaps by the rumours of those who had felt the 
weight of his arm. Anstis, the historian of the 
order, who searched the records for the express 
purpose, assures his readers there is no entry of 
Fastolfe's name in the Black Book, which com- 
memorates similar degradations ; and, what is still 
more conclusive, regular mention is made of his 
attendance at the Feasts of St. George and the 
Chapters of the Order till the period of his de- 
cease.''" 

'I J) id, p. 29. 



Again Mr. Turner: 

' ' It were injustice not to quote, by way of illus- 
trating- the feeling tliat existed even in the Eliza- 
bethan age, the glowing sentences with which old 
Fuller sums up his account of him: 'To avouch 
him' (says the generous biographer) 'by many 
arguments valiant, is to maintain that the sun is 
bright ; though the stage hath been over- bold with 
his memory, making him a Thrasonical Puff and 
emblem of Mock valour. True it is. Sir John Old- 
castle did first bear the brunt of the one, being 
made the make-sport in all plays for a coward. 
It is easily known out of what purse this black 
peny came; the papists railing on him for a 
heretic, and therefore he must also be a coward; 
though indeed he was a man of arms, every inch 
of him, and as valiant as any of his age. Now, as 
I am glad that Sir John Oldcastle is put out, so I 
am sorry that Sir John Fastolfe is put in. Nor 
is our comedian excusable by some alteration of 
his name, writing him Sir John Falstafe ('and mak- 
ing him the property of pleasure for King Henry 
the Fifth to abuse), seeing the vicinity of sounds 
entrench on the memory of that worthy knight of 
their name.' "^ 

Honest Fuller had not read the Paston Letters nor 
had he, like the poet, entered into the "heart of elder" 
of Sir John Fastolf. Time sustains Shakespeare's 
verdict. 

Of Thomas Fastolf, the unlucky ward of Sir John, 

Dawson Turner writes: 

"At the same advanced period of his life, but 
still evidently broken by years. Sir John presses 
his correspondent to assist him in obtaining the 
wardship of a minor. This was commonly an 
object with men of consequence in those days ; for 
not only did it throw power into their hands, by 

'IbuL, p. 34. 

112 



placing the management of estates under tlieir 
control, but it likewise gave them the authority to 
dispose of their wards in marriage, to whom and 
on what terms they thought proper. The letter in 
which the request is urged presents a curious il- 
lustration, both of the times and of the writer's 
personal character : it exhibits the steadiness with 
which he kept his object in view, and the address 
he employed in the pursuit of it. John Paston is 
entreated to induce the sheriif to assist in for- 
warding the matter, and is himself urged to 'take 
it tenderly to heart.' The more effectually to 
quicken his zeal, a hint is throwm out that a mar- 
riage should in due time take place between the 
intended ward and some one of Paston 's daugh- 
ters. The proposed match, which indeed never 
was carried into effect, is said, in this instance, 
to have been altogether a suitable one; but it is 
plain that the inclination of the parties would not 
have been consulted, nor, in eases of that nature, 
was it customary to allow it to enter the least into 
consideration. The young man, whose future fate 
formed the subject of the correspondence, is dis- 
covered by the endorsement of the letter to have 
been 'Thomas Fastolfe',^ son and heir of Nicholas 
Fastolfe, of Ipswich, and cousin to the knight." 

"He was at that time a'bout ten years old; as 
appears from a subsequent letter written by his 
mother,^° in which she complains that his guar- 
dians endeavoured to represent her son as younger 
than he actually was, in order the longer to retain 
possession of his estate. Four years, at the ut- 
most, comprehend the time during which he re- 
mained under Sir John Fastolfe 's guardianship; 
but he did really become a member of his house- 
hold, as is made evident by the mention of 'Thomas 
Fastolfe, is chamboure,' in the inventory of the 

^Hc teas fion and heir of John Fastolf of CotcJiau-c. Paston Letters, 
Vols. I, II, III, and Introdnetion Gairdner Ed. 1910. 
^"Paston Letters. Vol. II, p. 03.' 

113 



furniture and effects left at Caister upon the 
knight's decease. From the same document it also 
appears that Sir John did not spoil his little kins- 
man and ward by over-indulgence in luxuries: 
'j fedderbed, j bolster, j payre of schetys, jj blan- 
kettis, j rede coverlet, j coverying of worstet, and 
j testour,' are the only articles enumerated in the 
catalogue of the contents of his apartment. But 
then, as if by way of compensation, and perhaps 
to keep alive liis pride of ancestry, it is expressly 
said that the 'arms of Fastolfe, embroidered on 
rede say,' are placed at the 'seloure,' or head of 
his bed."" 

The present Rector of Caister, Great Yarmouth, in an 
admirable essay^^ on Sir John Fastolf, sums up twelve 
points of resemblance between the true knight and Fal- 
statf . We give one : 

'^ Language has been strained to its utmost to 

express Falstaif's grossness of body 

Now in the matter of this amplitude of form there 
appears to be curious corroboration of identity be- 
tween the false knight and the true. Not only does 
a tradition still linger on in Caister of the brawn 
of the first lord of its castle, but an old print in 
the Free Library of Great Yarmouth tends to con- 
firm it." 

Of the jewels, gold and silver, money and plate, ward- 
robe and furniture which belonged to Fastolf at the time 
of his death, see the Inventorj^^^ j|^g editor, Mr. Arnot, 
says: "I cannot conclude this summary without advert- 
ing to what may appear a remarkable omission. I 
allude to the absence of books of every description." 

^Villiam of Worcester, the scholarly secretary of Sir 
John Fastolf, hungered after knowledge and was in Lon- 

"Ibid., pp. 38-39. 

""37(e Case of f>ir John Falstof." Bi/ David Wallace Duthie. Lond. 
.1907. 

'^'Archacologie x.r.ri, pp. 232-280. 

114 



don when Henry Windsor, his friend, wrote this to Sir 
John Paston in 1458 : 

''I may sey to you that William hath goon to 
scole, to a Lumhard called Karoll Giles, to lern 
and" to be red in poetre or els in Frensh; for he 
hath byn with the same Caroll every dey ij. times 
or iij., and hath bought divers boks of hym, for 
the which, as I suppose he hath put hymself in 
daunger to the same Karoll. I made a mocion to 
William to have knoen part of his besines, and 
he answered and seid that he wold be as glad and 
as feyn of a good boke of Frensh or of poetre as 
my Master Fastolf wold be to purchace a faire 
manoir; and therby I understand he list not to 
be commynd with all in such matiers." 

To this learned gentleman, Sir John Fastolf paid a. 
salary of five shillings a year! A manuscript in the Brit- 
ish Museum, supposed to be written by William Wyrces- 
tre in praise of Millicent, wife of Sir John Fastolf, ends 
thus: "John Fastolf which was a valiant Knyght and 
sharp in bateylle .... Iff it were ryght that any- 
thin should ascend unto the high Celestiall place for his: 
own desert and merytt, doubtless it should be this gen- 
eration."^'* 

W^e agree with him, for Time has taken the lustre from' 
the worldly Sir John Fastolf and left : 

^'None so poor to do him reverence." 

After enumerating Fastolf 's belongings, Dawson Tur- 
ner concludes: 

"Such, in lands and goods, were the possessions 
with which John Paston, eldest son of Sir William, 
found himself on a sudden enriched. Still, be- 
tween the stretching out of a hand to grasp them, 
and the actually having of them in tirm hold, the 
new heir was soon made conscious there was a 

^^Hist. Castle Comhc hij G. Poiilet Scrape. 1852. 
115 



wide difference. Within one week after Sir John 
Fastolfe's death, and well nigh before his body 
was committed to the tomb, it appears that for- 
midable pretenders to the property had already 
arisen." ^^ 
Mr. Ponlet Scrope observes: "Certainly no blood rela- 
tionship seems to have existed between them."^^ 

Hoping the reader will not be too much cloyed with the 
real Fastolf, I venture to say not one of his followers — 
not even John Paston, his heir, — would have paid to his 
memory that pathetic tribute which, after the death of his 
master Fal staff, Bardolph utters when he says : 
*' Would I were with him, ivheresome'er he is, either in 
heaven or in hell." 
In II Henry IV., 2, 1, where the hostess of the Dolphin 
Inn has Sir John Falstaff arrested for debt, the reader 
will see the Lord Chief Justice shows little respect to 
Sir John: 

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, attended. 
Ch. Just. What is the matter? keep the peace 
here, hoi 

Host. Good my lord, be good to me ! I beseech 
you, stand to me! 

Ch. Just. How now, Sir John! what, are you 
brawling here ? 
Doth this become your place, your time, and busi- 
ness? 
You should have been well on your way to York. — 
Stand from him, fellow: wherefore hang'st on 
him? 
Host. 0! my most worshipful lord, an't please 
your grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and 
he is arrested at my suit. 
Ch. Just. For what sum? 

Host. It is more than for some, my lord ; it is for 
all, all I have. He hath eaten me out of house and 
home. . . . 

^Ibid.. p. 77. 

"Hist, of Castle ComJiC, p. 185. 

116 



Cli. Just. How comes this, Sir John? — Fie! what 
man of good temper would endure this tempest of 
exdamation? — Are you not ashamed to enforce a 
poor widow to so rough a course to come by her 
own? 

Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee ? 

Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, 
and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon 
a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, 
at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednes- 
day in Whit sun week, when the prince broke they 
head . . . 

Fal. My lord, this is a poor mad soul; . . . 

Ch. Just. Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquaint- 
ed with your manner of wrenching the true cause 
the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the 
throng of words that come with such more than 
impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a 
level consideration; j^ou have, as it appears to me, 
practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this 
woman, and made her serve your uses . . . 
Host. Yes, in troth, my lord. 

Ch. Just. Pr ythee, peace. — Pay her the debt you 
owe her, and unpay the villainy you have done with 
her: the one you may do with sterling money, and 
the other with current repentance. 

Fat. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap with- 
out rej^ly. You call honourable boldness, impudent 
sauciuess; if a man will make court'sy, and say 
nothing, he is virtuous. No, my lord, my humble 
duty remember'd, I will not be your suitor: I say 
to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers, 
being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs. 

Ch. Just. You speak as having power to do 
wrong; but answer in the effect of your reputation, 
and satisfy the poor Avomau. 
In his dealings with widows and orphans the real Fa?- 

117 



tolf had no scruples of conscience. Those acquainted with 
his treatment of the widowed mother of his cousin and 
ward, Thomas Fastolfe, discern this trait; and his un- 
kind usai2;e of Stephen Scrope/' his stepson, whom he 
kept out of his inheritance for fifty years shows his du- 
plicity. In A ^^Jiort View of English History, 1723, the 
author, Bevil Higgons, says Sir John Fastolf had "been 
ridiculed and misrepresented by the pen of a certain poet 
. . . for no other reason but that some of his pos- 
terity had disobliged Mr. Shakespeare." It would be 
gratifying to learn where Higgons got his tradition. 

Arthur Dandy, the Steward of Gray's Inn, who acted 
the Bishop of St. Giles in the Fields in the Gcsta Grayornm 
was related to the Bacons through the Falstaff's. The 
Poet, Francis Quarles, descended from these families. I 
find in the Visitation of Essex, 1612, p. 273, Edmund 
Quarles of Norwich in Com Norfolk Gentleman, married 
Mary, daughter of Thomas Daundie of Crettingham in Com 
Suffolk, Esq., by his wife, daughter of Fastolphe of Pettow, 
Esq. Shakespeare in 2 Hen., VI, iv, says : 

''Leave me at the White Hart in Southwork."" 

In the Gesta GrayoruniArtlmv Dandy^ personated ''the 
Bishop of St. Giles in the Fields," and in the Pension 
Book are the following interesting items concerning bin? 
and a White Hart Inn : 

''Jack Cade, the rebel, lodged here, when Sir John Fastolf took refuge 
in the Tower, to escape the rabble. 

^This gentleman's father married Anne Fastolfe, daughter of John 
Fastolf e of Pettaw Co., Suffolk. Her brother, Thomas Fastolf, married 
Francis Bacon's kinswoman, Alice Bacon. 

"This gentleman's father, Sir Stephen Scrope, bequeathed to his 
"dearest son and heir, Stephen, two silver basins with two silver water- 
stoups, twelve silver dishes, one gilt cup with a cover, two silver cups 
with covers, a set of hangings and a bed embroidered with poplers." 
with all its furniture, a service of table linen, &c., and a long sword 
formerly belonging to King Edward (the Third), and bequeathed to him 
by his father." It does not appear that Stephen Scrope ever recovered 
possession of these heirlooms. They no doubt went to swell the pro- 
digious mass of valnalilcs that were accumulated by Fastolf. and found 
on his decease in bis town and country houses, of which Mr. Amyot has 
printed the inventory in the Archa^logia, Vol. xxi." 

lis 



1583 Mr. Arthur Dandy to be paid three pounds in 
lieu of fourteen years arrearage of rent for the 
acre of land in Bernerd's Close by such as have 
occupied the said acre; and from henceforth Ber- 
nerd's tenant is to pay fifteen shillings a year dur- 
ing the life of Mr. Dandy, whereof five shillings 
yearly is to be paid to the House. Mr. Dandy to 
have the piece of ground inclosed with the mud 
wall behind the White Hart at a rent of xx"^ per 
annum, and he is to be paid the arrears of rent for 
the last twenty-eight years, p. 57. 

1597 PENSION 25th April, 39 Eliz : Present :— BRO- 
GRAVE. HESKETH, ANGER, BACON, 
STANHOPE, HALES, POOLEY, FULLER, 
PELHAM, LANY, NIGHTINGALE, BARKER, 
PEPPER and BRACKEN. 

"The copye of a leas shewed forth by Mr. Med- 
calf by wch he pretendeth title to an Acre of 
Ground opposite to ye AVhight Hart. 

Mr. Fletcher notes: *'In Bentley's Book ... it is re- 
corded that the light-wardens of St. Andrew's received 
yearly a rent of five shillings for an acre of ground be- 
hind the AVhite Hart, called the Church acre, in and 
before the 20th year of Edward IV." 

And at Pension 4th, Nov : 28 Eliza : 1586, it was : 

"Ordered that Arthur Dandy shall yerelie have 
during his lyff five marks for a gowne & a lyverie 
of the howsse in respect of his ancyent service 
when he was Steward of the House and of his 
alliance to the Lord Keeper that dead is."^ 
The Lord Keeper was Francis Bacon's father. 

*Ibid., p. 74. 

119 



YOU WOULD PLUCK OUT THE HEART OF MY 
MYSTERY 

That there was au earlier p\-dj of Hamlet, thau Shake- 
speare's remains an o^jen question. Collier, the forger of so 
many Shakespeare "facts," harped much upon an older play 
of Hamlet. Thomas Nashe was the first to mention Hamlet 
in a preface to Greene's ''Meiiaphon'^ in 1589 as follows: 

"It is a common practise now a dales, amongst a 
sort of shifting companions, that runne through 
euery art and thriue by none to leaue the trade of 
Nouerint, whereto they were borne, and busie them- 
selues with the indeuors of art, that could scarcelie 
latinise their neck-verse if they should haue neede; 
yet English Seneca read by candle-light yeeldes 
manie good sentences as 'hloud is a hegget-^ and so 
forth : and if you intreate him faire in a frostie morn- 
ing, he will affoord you whole Hamlets, I should say 
handfulls of tragical speeches. But o grief e ! tempus 
edax reruin; what's that will last alwaies? The sea 
exhaled by droppes will in continuance be drie, and 
Seneca let blond line by line, and page by page, at 
length must needes die to our stage." 

Nashe in this tirade aims at more than one man, for his 
Epistle is written in a plural sense. 

When these lines were penned, Francis Bacon was a 
struggling young lawyer at Gray's Inn. (1589.) It may be 
said that Bacon was born to the law, as his father was a 
great lawyer before him. At any rate if my theory is worth 
while, young Francis Bacon could haA^e aided Shakespeare 
in the use of the legal terms we find so plentifully sprinkled 
through Hamlet, and as Nashe gibed at more thau one, his 
lines: 'could scarcelie latinise their neck-ve(rse if they 
should have neede; reminds us of Ben Jonson's 'small 

120 



latin/ and might be applied to the Yonth who only two 
years before arrived in Loudon from Stratford. That Nashe 
referred to Shakespeare's Hamlet and none other, I firmly 
believe. Take his: 'bloud is a begger' and compare it 
with the noble Hamlet's: 

"Begger that I am, I am even poor in thanks.'' 

Nashe continues. 

"And if you intreat him faire in a frosty morning, he 
Avill afforde you whole Hamlets, I should say handfulls of 
tragicall speeches." 

Intreat whom fair? And why on a frosty morning? Did 
Nashe refer to the character of the Sentinal Franeisco, who 
onlj^ appears once in the play of Hamlet, and speaks but 
fifty-five words? 

I have reason to think so, for it is he who says : 
' ' ' " 'Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart." 

Pathetic words, which seem to prepare the hearers for 
a tragic ending as the reader may judge : 

ACT I. 

SCENE I.— Elsinore. .4. Platform before the Castle. 
Francisco on his Post. Enter to Mm Bernardo. 

Bernardo. 
Who's there? 

Fran. Nay, answer me : stand, and unfold 

Yourself. 

Bcr. Long live the king ! 

Fran. Bernardo? 

Ber. He. 

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. 

Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve ; get thee to bed, Fran- 
cisco. 

Fran. For this relief, much thanks : 'tis bitter cold, 
And I am sick at heart. 

Ber. Have you had quiet guard? 

Fran. Not a mouse stirring. 

121 



Bcr. Well, good night. 
If von do meet Horatio and Marcellus, 
The rivals of mv watch, bid them make haste. 

Enter Horatio and Marcellus. 

Frau. I think, I hear them. — Stand, ho! Who is 

there? 
Hor. Friends to this ground. 
Mar. And liegemen to the Dane. 

Fran. Give you good night. 

Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier: 

Wlio hath reliev'd you? 

Fran. Bernardo hath my place. 

Give you good night. [Ej-'it Francisco. 

Francisco does not appear again, but it is likely his: 
^ 'Tis bitter cold' gave Nashe his 'fro.^ty morning.' The word 
frost is not mentioned in the play. 

In Act I, scene 4, Hamlet says: 

'The air bites shrewdly, 'it is very cold' and 
Horatio replies : 

'It is a nipping and an eager air.' 

It seems to me Nashe who was very sensitive to climatic 
influences, could not forget the impression the first act of 
Hamlet made upon him. He died of consumption and was 
always delicate I imagine. His preface to 'Menapliow was 
his first publication. It seems to me a strange coincidence 
that Greene should have dedicated 'Menaphon to a Lady 
Hales — because the grave-yard scene in Hamlet has long 
been regarded as a parody on the case of the suicide of Sir 
James Hales, an honorable Judge of Common Pleas and a 
member of Gray's Inn. This celebrated case Hales v. Petit 
(Plowden p. 253) must have created much tragic-mirth 
among the lawyers of Gray's Inn. 

Lord Chief Justice Dyer (related to the Bacon's by 

122 



marriage) helped to conduct the case. One of the things 
the Court said was : 

"Sir James Hales was dead, and how came he to 
his death? It may be answered by drowning — and 
who drowned him? Sir James Hales — and when did 
he drown him? In his life time. So that Sir James 
Hales being alive caused Sir James Hales to die I 
and the act of the living man was the death of the 
dead man, and then for this offence it is reasonable 
to punish the living man who committed the offence 
and not the dead man. But how can he be said to 
be punished alive when the punishment comes after 
death." 

This case from Plowdon was written in old Norman law 
French, and Malone tells us it was not translated into 
English during Shakespeare's life. Francis Bacon, a legal 
light at that time, was familiar with this work of Plow- 
don's, and could have aided the Dramatist, who saw in it 
comedy enough for the following scene : 

Act 5, Scene I. 

1st Grave D. — Is she to be buried in Christian 
burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation? 

2d Grave D. — I tell thee she is; therefore make 
her grave straight ; the crowner hath set on her, and 
finds it christian burial. 

1st Grave D. — How can that be, unless she 
drowned herself in her own defense? 

2d Grave D. — AVhy, 'tis found so. 

1st Grave D. — It must be sc offcndeudo, it can- 
not be else. For here lies the point: if I drown 
myself wittingly, it argues an act ; and an act hath 
three branches; it is^ to act, to do, to perform. 
Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 

2d Grave D. — Nay, but hear you, goodman de- 
liver. ; 

123 



1st Grave D. — Give me leave. Here lies the water ; 
good ; here stands the man ; good. If the man go to 
this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nil he, 
he goes; mark you that: but, if the water comes to 
him, and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, 
he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not 
his own life. 

2d Grave D.— But is this law? 

1st Grave D. — Ay, marry is't, crowner's 'quest 
law. 

2d Grave D.— mil you ha' the truth on't? If 
this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have 
been buried out of christian burial. 

It is difficult to believe that Hamlet, the most extra- 
ordinary, if not the greatest creation of Shakespeare, could 
have been written by a youth but two years from his native 
Stratford. Scholars cannot marry this youth to the Ham let 
of 1589, and have conjured up an Ur-Hamlct it seems to 
me, to account for the allusions of Nashe, and Lodge. 

Sir Sidney Lee in his 'Life of Shakespeare' (Ed. 1916, 
p. 354), says: . . . "Tom Nashe credited a writer whom 
he called 'English Seneca' with the capacity of penning 
'whole Hamlets/ I should say handfuls of tragical 
speeches.' " 

Is not this interpretation misconstrued? Did not Nashe 
have in mind when he wrote: 'English Seneca read by 
candle light' a translation of Seneca, rather than an indi- 
vidual? This would carry out Nashe's former implication 
that one of the men he gibed at 'could scarcely latinise [his] 
neck-verse if [he] should have need' i. e. that he was not 
capable of reading Seneca in the original. 

Thomas Powell in his 'Attorney's Academy' calls Fran- 
cis, Lord Verulem, and Viscount St. Albans : 'Good Seneca.' 

A Thomas Powell printed for George Bucke, Jasper Hey- 
wood's translation of Senecas 'The Sixth Tragedie' which 
was dedicated to the Queen. Heywood also dedicated some 

124 



of liis Seueca trauslatioiis to (Sir Thomas Ilenueage, Bacon's 
good friend. 

In his translation of 'Tliijesfes' Jasper Heywood added 
a scene to the fifth act ''wherein the hero, in a soliloqy, 
laments his own misfortunes, and calls for judgment and 
vengeance on Atreus." Hecuba is portraj^ed in the first 
act, and there is a ghost in the traged3\ 

I am inclined to believe Nashe was thinking of this very 
play when he referred to 'English Seneca.' 

It was said on the title page of the first Quarto Hamlet, 
1603, that it was acted "in the tw^o Universities of Cam- 
bridge and Oxford." It will be observed that Nashe dedi- 
cates his Epistle before 'Menaphoii' "to the gentlemen Stu- 
dents of both Universities." If they had seen the play they 
could better appreciate Nashe's satire. 

Did not the many legal terms in Hamlet lead Nashe to 
infer that the author was leaving the "trade of Norverint" 
to "busy" himself "with the endeavors of art"? Hamlet's 
renowned speech over the supposed lawyers skull, may have 
moved Nashe to this criticism. 

Ham. There's another: why may not that be the 
skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his 
quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why 
does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him 
about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not 
tell him of his action of battery? Humph ! This fel- 
low might be in 's time a great buyer of land, with 
his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double 
vouchers, his recoveries : is this the fine of his fines, 
and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine 
pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him 
no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than 
the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? 
The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie 
in this box, and must the inheritor himself have 
no more? ha? 

125 



Eor. Not a jot more, my lord. 

Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? 

Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. 

In Nashe's Works, Ed. by McKerron, Vol. 1 p. 342, Nash 
again refers to a Noverint, whom he dubbs an "unskillful 
pen-man." 

After Bacon's friends, the Carey's and Bishop Whitgift, 
befriended him, Nashe seems to have regretted some things 
he had written and says : "For neither was I Greenes com- 
panion only more than for a carouse or two," and as he 
recalls the trouble 'The Isle of Dog's' put him to, he says: 

"A man \\\i\j not talk of a dog, but it is surmised 
he aims at him that giveth the dog in his crest." 

'The Isle of Dogs' is mentioned in the Northumberland 

Ms. as well as Thomas Nashe's name. 

Of an earlier Hamlet than Shakespeare's, Charles Knight 

said: 

"They have taken conjecture for proof, not a title 
of distinct evidence exists to show that there was any 
other play of Hamlet but that of Shakespeare and 
all the collateral evidence upon which it is inferred 
that an earlier play of Hamlet than Shakespeare's 
did exist, may, on the otlier hand be taken to prove 
that Shakespeare's original sketch of Hamlet was in 
repute at an earlier period than is commonly as- 
signed as its date." It vexed Knight who tells us 
Collier constantly spoke of and harped upon the 
"old" Hamlet. 

Malone said: 

"If Shakespeare meant to allude to the case of 
Dame Hales, (which indeed* seems not improbable,) 
he must have heard of that case in conversation ; for 
it was determined before he was born, and Plow- 
den's Commentaries, in which it is reported were 
not translated into English till a few years ago. Our 

126 



author's study was probably uot much eucumbered 
with old Freuch Keports." 

Another stumbling block may be found in Hamlefs in- 
structions to the players. How could a youth so fresh 
from his native town direct authoritively the Actor's in 
speech and gesture, conveying the art of using their Eng- 
lish : 

"As I [rrononnccd it to yon tripplmjly on the 
tongue^^? 

Henry VIII. once asked a foreign physician who had 
lived in England many years, why he did not speak Eng- 
lish better? The answer was: "Sire, what can you expect 
from one who has only lived here thirty years?" "The 
learned pupil of Buchannon, who misruled two Kingdoms 
"mouthed" his English in a broad Scotch accent, and yet 
he must have been taught English from his childhood. , 

Orl. Where dwell you, pretty youth? 

KoH. AVith this shepherdess, my sister; here in 
the skirts of the forest, like fringe upon a petticoat. 

Orl. Are you native of this place? 

Ros. As the coney, that you see dwell where she 
is kindled. 

Orl. Your accent is something finer than you could 
purchase in so removed a dwelling. 

Ros. f have been told so of many : but, indeed, an 
old religious uncle of mine taught me to speak, who 
Avas in his youth an inland man; one that knew 
courtship too well, for there he fell in love. I have 
heard him read many lectures against it; and I 
thank God, I am not a woman, to be touched with 
so many giddy offences, as he hath generally taxed 
their whole sex withal. 

Inland (Saxon Law Term), that inner Land, or 
part of a Manor which lay next or most convenient 
for the Lord's Mansion-House, for the Maintenance 



of his Famil}^, &c. and opposed to the JJtland, or 
Outhiiid, which was to let out to Tenants." — 
Phillips. 



John Davies of Hereford, for fear of offending, is care- 
ful to say in the very beginning that he sings the follow- 
ing lines "in sport." Perhaps the great lord Burleigh and 
his son, Robert Cecil, were displeased at the portrayal of 
"Kings and Counsellors," and as the Comedy of Errors 
was a part of the Sports, it may have moved Davies to 
pen these lines: 

To our Englifh Terence, Mr. Will. 
Shake-fpeare. 
Some fay (good Will) which I in fport, do flng, 
Had'ft thou not plaid fome Kingly parts in fport. 
Thou hadft bin a companion for a King; 
And, beene a King among the meaner fort. 
Some others raile; but, raile as they thinke fit. 
Thou haft no rayling, but, a raigning Wit: 
: And honefty thou foiv' ft, which they do rca'pc, 

Ho, to increafe their Stocke which they do Iceepc. 

Davies must have referred to the principal capital or 
stock of a company when he says Shakespeare sow'd "to 
increase their Stocke which they do keepe." 

The lines are puzzling, for we know Shakespeare shared 
in the profits of the Lord Chamberlains servants, and that 
he "trafficked with the stage." 

It is well known that Francis Bacon, by some act un- 
known to us, displeased the Cecils, who never forgave him, 
and gave his mother many anxious hours. Bacon's words: 

"I have tuned the harp of the muses 
That others may play" 

leads me to think Shakespeare could not have found in 
London a more tender defender than Francis Bacon. For 
we must bear in mind the actors that played at Gray's 

128 



Inu that Christmas were called "base and common fellows" 
and it is most true that Bacon's mother looked upon these 
men as : 

^'A crew of patches, rude mechanics, that loork 
for hread.'^ 

The reader will better understand Lady Bacon's feeling 
if I quote from Sir John Feme's "The Blazon of Gentrie/' 
printed in 1586, one year before Shakespeare's arrival in 
London. Feme studied law in the Inner Temple and was 
well known to the Bacon's. It was not only the Actor 
who was despised but to write plays for the public was 
a disgrace. A nobleman or a gentleman might write a 
masque for the Court, or for his University, as so many 
of them did; but to pen plays for the multitude — to be 
"clapper clawed by the vulgar"^ — was ignominious and base. 
The student must forget the present and transport his 
thoughts to the age of Shakespeare if he would realize the 
status of the Theatre Poet. Sir John Feme gives us to 
understand that no man in his day was termed "gentle" or 
a "gentleman" unless he bore a coat of arms. He describes 
the seven liberal Artes, and then delineates the seven Me- 
chanical Sciences, saying : "Mechanical sciences, with their 
professours were debarred the preheminence of Geutrie." 
Then adds: "And of these Mechanical Artes (that have 
retayned the title of necessary, honest, and laudable) the 
number of them is but seven." And he puts the skill of 
the actor and the writer of plays at the end of his list, 
thus: 

"The seventh and last Mechanical Arte, is called 
Theatrica, that is to say, the arte and skill of Playes 
practised in Theatres, and exposed to the spectacle of mul- 
titudes. ... If they be played for the cause of gaine, 
to move laughter and sport to the people, such playes be 
reprobate, and not only worthy of dispraise, but rather 
to be accounted infamous," pp. 74-76. That the stage did 
stain pure gentle blood we are told by John Davies of Here- 

129 



ford in his Microcosmos, 1603, wliere lie again points to 
Shakespeare : 

^layers, I love yee, and your Qiialitie, 

c w. s. R. B. ■^'^ y^ ^^^ Men, that pass time not abns'd : 

saith, Aat'pih^t A.ud some I love for painting, poefic, 

ing is a dumb 

^raspfakSg ^^^ ^^y f^ll Fortune cannot be excufd, 
That hath for better ufcs you refuf'd : 
Wit, Courage, good shape, good partes, and all good,. 

Roscius was 

said for his ex- f^s long as al thefe goods are no icorfe uf'd, 

celloicy in his ' 

only wort'h^e ^^^l though the stuge doth staine pure gentle hloud, 

to come on 

the stage, and i^et geucrous yec are in niinde and moode. 

for his home- " ^ 

sty to be more 
worthy then to 
come theron. 



In Chamberlain's letters are found allusions to Bacon's 
friends and relations. 

On the 11th June, 1597, he shows how Bacon's Alter Ego, 
Tobie Mathew, desired to follow Dudley Carleton into 
France : 

"Went to Askot, where I met with your brother 
Carleton (comming from the buriall of 3'our uncle 
Goodwin), who told me Tobie Mathew had sheAved 
him a letter from you wherein you complained much 
of want, and what narrow straights you were like 
to be driven to, marvailing you had touclit no such 
matter in your letters to him, and therewithall began 
to dilate to me what he had don and could do for 
you, but the conclusion was that his abilitie is not 
to supplie all wants, and therefore you must trust 
to yourself and make your owne fortune. I replied 
litle to it but only in general termes, the rather be- 
cause I hope it is but a borrowed complaint to distast 
younge Mathew from following you into Fraunce 
then for any true cause. 

1.30 



In a letter dated 17th May, 1598, he says : 

''All that I heare of Tobie Mathew is, that he 
staide in Fraiiuce Avith yoiinge Throgmorton, that 
fell sicke of the small pockes." 

In Oct., 1601, he writes: "Tobie Mathew is neAvly come 
to towne with his lord father and mother," and again on 
the 8th of May, 1602, "Your friend Tobie Mathew is newly 
recovered from a long and shrewd fit of his old infirmity..'^ 

On Dec. 20th, 1598, he writes to Carleton : 

"You see how confidently I write to you of all 
things, but I hope you kepe it to yourself, and then 
there is no daunger, and I am so used to a libertie 
and fredome of speach when I converse or write to 
my friends that I cannot easilie leave it. Your 
brother and sister Williams marvaile they heare not 
from you. I have had much ado to excuse myself 
this Christmas from Knebworth and Askot, but 
specially from Knebworth, the rather because Wat 
Cope and his wife, Hugh Beeston, and Mr. Evers, 
go thether; but upon some occasions I am growne 
so privat that I stirre not abrode, nor mean to do, 
but to live at home like a snaile in the shell. And 
so, wishing you a goode new yeare and many, I end. 

This letter may have been written from Dr. Gilbert's 
house. We judge from its contents that Chamberlain dis- 
liked both Walter Cope and Hugh Beeston, 

On July 1st, 1600, he writes : 

"I have not seen Watt Cope since I received your 
letter, and therefore know nothing more of the com- 
mission. I presume you shall find him inditferent, 
for I remember that, upon a Avord cast out by myself 
at the first mention of it, he protested that no re- 
spect shold carie him beyond his conscience." 

Cope's master, Cecil, Avas always protesting about his 
conscience. 

1S1 



On 4tli Dec, 1602, he Avrites: 

"Mr. Cope is xerj hot aud earnest for his papers. 
I wonld YOU could tell how to 'stop his mouth.' " 

The folloAving-, dated Dec. 23rd, 1002, brings Cope and 
his master Cecil together: 

"I have pacified ^^'at Cope in shewing him what 
you write touching his papers. Mr. Secretarie did 
him a very extraordinarie favor to admit him a part- 
ner in his entertainment to the Queue, and to per- 
mit him to present her with some toyes in his house, 
for the which he had many faire wordes, but as yet 
cannot get into the private chamber, though he ex- 
pect it daily. You like the Lord Kepers devises 
so ill, that I cared not to get Mr. Secretaries that 
were not much better, saving a pretty dialogue of 
John Davies, twixt a niaide, a widow, and a wife, 
which I do not thincke but Mr. Saunders hath seen, 
and no doubt will come out one of these dayes in 
print with the rest of his works. The Lord Ad- 
miralls feasting the Queue had nothing extraordi- 
narie, neither were his presents so precious as was 
expected; being only a whole suit of apparell, 
whereas it was thought he would have bestowed his 
rich hangings of all the fights with the Spanish 
Armada in eightie-eight. These feastings have had 
theire effect to stay the Court here this Christmas, 
though most of the cariages were well onward on 
theire waye to Ikichmond. 

On Feb. lltli, 1(102-3, he reminds (^irlcton: "You still 
forget ]Mr. Cope, whom I could wish you had at this time 
remembered.'' 

The old Queen was neariug her end, and it was well to 
be near Cecil, who now looked toward the rising Sun. 



GooDE Mr, Carleton: 

Now I have dispatclit the ordinarie occurrents, it 
will not be aniisse to iuforiiie 3011 of some privat 
matters apart, which course you may hold with me 
(if you please) iu whatsoever you would have kept 
close or reserved ; for both you and I have so many 
goode frends here in common, that, if they heare of 
any post or packet, they thincke themselves wronged 
if they see not the originall, whereof I assure you 
I am not so liberall, but that they see it comes invita 
Minerva, and not at first call. Upon my first com- 
ming to towne, Mr. Cope in(iuired when I heard from 
you, and told me of two papers he had delivered you 
of the genealogies and matches of the great houses of 
France, which he desired you to continue and draw 
out till this time. I gave no great eare to him then ; 
but, upon a second and third sommons, I told him 
what other imployments and business withheld you, 
that you could not attend such trinckets; his 
aunswer was that you might get some expert French- 
man to do it for you according to those copies, or at- 
leastwise send him backe his owne papers which he 
had out of his old lords memorialls. Though I hold 
him neither apt nor greatly able to do any frend he 
hath goode, yet must we sometimes hold a candle 
before the devill, and do as the people of Calicut, 
that worship him, not so much for any help they 
looke for at his hands, as because he shold do them 
no harme. I use him somwhat after that kinde; 
and, though for some inward respects I maligne 
him as much as any old frend he hath, yet I com- 
pile thus far with him as to serve his humor now and 
then when it comes upon me. As this other day, 
expostulating with me why I did not present Mr. 
Secretarie with some toyes to kepe me in his remem- 
braunce, I delivered him some of those pictures and 
verses you sent me in your hand which I presume 

133 



Mr. Secretarie knowes, at leastwise I told Wat Cope 
I had them from you, and he sayes Mr. Secretarie 
chose the last picture and the last verses you sent, 
so that, if it do me no goode, it can do you no harme. 
If you did not know me so well as you do, me 
thinckes you might guesse I aime at somwhat, but 
I Yowe and sweare unto you by our love and friend- 
ship (which is a sound oth) that I am past all ambi- 
tion, and wish nor seeke nothing but how to live 
siiaviter and in plentie. To which end and to your 
own goode, if you sometimes furnish me with such 
toyes as you thincke fit, it will not be amiss." — 
October 2, 1602. 

The following letter to Bacon's cousin is said to be 
from Sir AValter Cope, 1604. 

"Sir : 

''I have sent and bene all thys morning huutyng 
for players Juglers & Such kinde of Creaturs, but 
fynde them harde to finde, wherfore Leavinge notes 
for them to seeke me, burbage ys come, & Sayes ther 
ys no new playe that the queue hath not scene, but 
they have Kevjved an olde one, Cawled Loves Lahore 
lost, which for wytt & niirthe he sayes will please 
her excedingly. And Thys ys apointed to be playd 
to Morowe night at my Lord of Southamptons, un- 
less yow send a Avrytt to Remove the Corpus Cum 
Causa to your howse in strande. Burbage ys my 
messenger Ready attendyng your pleasure. 
"Yours most humbly, 

"Walter Cope." 

Letter dated ''From i/onr L'lhrarji," trrittcii hij Sir 
Walter Cope, addressed ''To the right honorahle 
the Lord Yycount Cranhorne at the Courte." En- 
dorsed: 1604, Sir Walter Cope to my Lord. Hat- 
field House ^fSS. See Third Report of the Royal 

134 



Commission of Historical Manuscripts. 1872. j^. 
148. "Cent, of Praise/' p. 62. 

Hamlet's : 

''The less they deserve, the more 
Merit in your bounty." 

found no entrance in Cope's philosophy. 

Doctor C. W. Wallace in 'The First London Theatre/ 
1913, tells us : 

"In June, 1589, Burbage and his son Cuthbert ap- 
pealed to Walter Cope in the matter. Cope ^Yas gen- 
tleman usher to the Lord High Treasurer of Eng- 
land, and in that important post had great influ- 
ence. He was intimate with every high official of 
the realm, and later himself became one of the 
powerful men of England under James I. Cuthbert 
Burbage, a young man of only twenty-two years, 
according to his own deposition, was then and for 
some years later employed by Cope as His "servant," 
probably as clerk in some department of the Treas- 
ury. Upon the request of Cuthbert and his father, 
Walter Cope wrote a letter to John Hyde suggest- 
ing that Cope might be of service to Hyde with the 
Lord Treasurer sometime, if he would be so good 
as to convey to Cuthbert the lease of the Theatre. 
So Hyde did it. He said afterwards, as Bett testi- 
fied, that if it had not been for Cope's letter he 
Avould not have sold to Cuthbert, but to Clough and 
Middlemore, who very much wanted it. It was a 
close shave for the Burbage — and possibly for the 
future drama." 

We catch a glimpse of Bacon's friends at the Mermaid 
in this letter : 

"Yesternight Mr. Edmunds, ^Nlr. Winwood, your 
brother, Mr. Gent, and myself supt at the Mermaide, 

. 135 



where your health was often remembered, and better 
provided for iiiiir pocula then your owne, for I have 
ben distempered ever since. . . . And so with 
my best wishes I commit you to (lOd." 

From London, this 11th of February, 1602. 
Yours most assuredly, 

John Chamberlain. 

[Addressed y] 

To my assured goode frend 
Mr. Dudley Carleton 
give these 
at the Lord Ambassadors 

in Paris. 

Chamberlain did not enjoy these wet combats as much 
as Ben Jonson and Fletcher did. In his poem, "Inviting 
a Friend to Supper," Jonson says : 

But that which most doth tiike my muse and me, 

Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine. 

Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine. 

Of this w^e shall sup free, but moderately ; 

Nor shall our cups make any guilty men : 

But at our parting we will be as when 

We innocently met. No simple word. 

That shall be utter'd at our mirthful board, 

Shall make us sad next morning, or affright 

The liberty that we'll enjoy to night. 

This resolution must have been made on a New Year's 
Eve, for we are told by a contemporary that wine was the 
element in which Jonson lived. 

I do not hesitate to say that these friends of Bacon's 
knew Shakespeare well, although his name is never men- 
tioned in their correspondence. 



136 



These letters of Jolm Chamberlain to his friend Sir Dnil- 
ley Carleton from 1507 to 1(103, Edited for the Camden 
Society, are filled with contemporary news of all kinds, and 
are valuable contributions to the social, artistic, and polit- 
ical life of his day. They bring us in contact with the most 
tiotable people of Elizabeth's Court, and after her death they 
enable us to follow them into the Court of James I., for 
Chamberlain continued to Avrite up to the year of his 
death, 1625. 

A happy few of Chamberlain's friends, I am inclined 
to think, were memibers of a sort of secret society which 
held its meetings at the house of Dr. Gilbert on St. 
Peters Hill, London. During the Essex troubles this 
Dr. Gilbert w^as chosen as one of the Queen's i^hysicians 
and their meetings at his house w^ere broken up. On 
Nov. 14, IGOl, Chamiberlin writes : 

Mr. Carleton, 
"I wrote to Mr. Winwood the last weeke, and 
sent him such poore occurents as the time affords. 
I meant to have saluted you likewise, and geven 
you thancks for yours of the 24th of the last, 
which came to my hands that weeke, but I could 
neither find time nor place, unles I shold have 
crept into some scriveners shop, for Mr. Lytton, 
whiles he is here, hath so much companie, and so 
much to do, that he possesseth every corner, so that 
I am driven to a narrow^ shift to write now." 
Showing how he missed the privacy of Dr. Gilbert's. 

On Feb. 3rd, IGOO, he had written : 

"The Queue hath made choise of our Doctor for 
her phisition, but he is not yet sworne. I doubt 
our colledge wilbe dissolved, and some of us sent 
to seeke our fortune." 

Again on May 27, 1601 : 
"GooDE Mr. Carleton, 
I am driven to such straights that I know not 

137 



what to say but quid scriham, out quid non scrib- 
amf The uncertaintie of your stay, my long ab- 
sence from this towne, the unluckines of my let- 
ters to be lost or overlooked, and the difficultie of 
finding fit messengers, have almost quite discour- 
aged me, and made me a truant en rostre endrox, 
for so will I acknowledge it to you, howsoever to 
others I could salve and make all whole with pass- 
able and pregnant excuses; but with so goode a 
trend I will never disguise, but tell the i:>laine 
troth and (which is worst) without hope of 
amendes, for I know not how to redeeme that is 
past with future diligence, being (since the disso- 
lution of our societie) become altogether a countri- 
man, and not appearing heer but as a termer." 

From London 8th of July IGOl he writes: 

"Mr. Gent, at his going out of towne yesterday, 
willed me to commend him to you. We shall meet 
very shortly, God willing, at Askot. If you direct 
your letters either to my lodging, or to Mr. John 
Nortons, they will fiude me out." 
To my assured goode frend 

Mr. Dudley Carleton 
geve these 

at Paris. 

Again on June 8th 1002: "If you write direct your 
letters to Norton's and I will leave order to have them 
sent after me." 

This was John Norton the Printer, who later on 
printed some of Shakespeare's plays. Kichard Field printed 
North's Plutarch for John Norton in 1603. In this same 
letter he says: "Litle Britain is translated to a house 
without Criplegate, where they have more elbow roome, 
but scant better aire.'' 

Garleton's sister jNIrs. Williams lived in Little Britain, 

138 




139 



not far from Silver and Mugwell Streets. Perhaps tliey 
had taken a house for the summer without Cripplegate 
which brought them still nearer to Shakespeare's lodg- 
ings in Silver Street. 

On the preceding page will be found a map of Little 
Britain showing its exact location in Shakespeare's day. 
This I had copied from the map of Aggas, 1563. 

Again he mentions Cripplegate : 

"I see not your friends without Criplegate; but 
I heare your sister Williams hath had a sonne. 
You must excuse my hudling haste, and commend 
me in all kindnes to Mr. Winwood, to whom I wold 
have written if either I had more matter or leisure ; 
but you may supplie that default with acquainting 
him with what you thincke Avortli the imparting; 
and so I commit you to Gods holy protection." 
From London, this second of October, 1602. 
Yours most assuredly, 

John Chamberlain. 

This year 1602 was a prosperous one for Shakespeare, 
for he bought lands from John Combe in Stratford-on- 
Avon, and secured a parcel of land in Kowington, nearby. 

It was also a luclvy year for his associate Cuthbert 
Burbage who was saved from bankruptcy by Francis 
Bacon. Why was Bacon chosen, when there were so 
many other able lawyers at Grays Inn? My belief is 
that he was friendly with Burbage and his "deserving 
man" Shakespeare. There is in a letter of Chamber- 
lain's dated April 26, 1602, in which he uses a Shake- 
spearian phrase: 

"I have an iuckling (but you must take no notice 
of it in any wise,) that your wisest and best es- 
teemed sister is taken in the same trap; so that 
I see, if wenches have not theire will, and that 

140 



husbands come not at call, we shall have them all 

discontented and turne Turke." 

Perhaps "turne Turke" was a current Court phrase 
for Hamlet uses it in : "If the rest of my fortunes turn 
Turke." 

In this letter 19 Nov. 1G02 we get a glimpse of the 
Court and the Bankside: 

"At the tilt were many younge runners, as you 
may perceve by the paper of theire names. Your 
foole Garret made as faire a shew as the prowdest 
of them, and was as well disguised, mary not alto- 
gether so well mounted, for his horse was no 
bigger than a goode ban-dogge; but he delivered 
his scutchion with liis imprcsa himself, and had 
goode audience of her Majestic, and made her very 
merry. And, now we are in mirth, I must not for- 
get to tell you of a cousening prancke of one 
Venner, of Lincolns Inne, that gave out 'bills of a 
famous play on iSatterday was sevenight on the 
Banckeside, to be acted only by certain gentlemen 
and gentlewomen of account. The price at com- 
ming in was two shillings or eighteen pence at 
least; and, when he had gotten most part of the 
mony into his hands, he wold have shewed them a 
faire paire of heeles, but he was not so nimble to 
get up on horsebacke, but that he w\as faine to for- 
sake that course, and betake himselfe to the water, 
where he was pursued and taken, and brought be- 
fore the Lord Cheife Justice, who wold make noth- 
ing of it but a jest and a merriment, and (bounde 
him over in five pound to appeare at the sessions. 
In the meane time the common people, w^hen they 
saw themselves deluded, revenged themselves upon 
the hangings, curtains, chaires, stooles, walles, and 
Avhatsoever came in theire way, very outragiously, 
and made great spoile; there was great store of 
goode companie, and many noblemen." 

141 



Herein we catcli a sight of two of Bacon's friends : 

"Our Mr. Trot shall marry one Mr. Perins 
daughter of Hartfordshire, a lusty tall wench able 
to beat two of him. Newes came this morning 
that Fulke Grivell is returned, and that the car- 
raque is arriyod at Plimmouth." 

On Oct. 2, 1G05, lOhamberlain goes with Bodley and 
others to Oxford University : 

"Mr. Bodley nor Mr. Gent are neither of them 
come to towne, so that I have nobody nor noAvhere 
to learne any thing on the sodain; and yet, hear- 
ing of a post that goes away soone, I wold not omit 
to write, though I have nothing but countrie occur- 
rents, which you shall have as redelie as I can re- 
member them in this haste, even ab ovo. The com- 
mencement at Oxford was very famous, for plentie 
of doctors, that were fifteen, twelve divines, and 
three lawyers; for store of venison, whereof Dr. 
Kinge had '27 buckes for his part; for royall chere, 
and an excellent concio ad clerum, wherein your 
cousen Dr. Goodwin bare the bell; for the exceed- 
ing assemblie of gentles, but specially for the great 
confluence of cutpurses, whereof ensued many 
losses and shrewde turnes, as first Mr. Bodley lost 
his clocke, 'Sir Kichard Lea two Jewells of 200 
markes, which Sir Harry Lea and he meant to 
have bestowed on the bride, Mr. Tanfelds daugh- 
ter; and divers other lost goode summes of five, 
eight, and fourteen pounds, besides petty detri- 
ments of scarfes, fans, gloves; and one mad knave, 
whether of malice or merriment, tooke the advan- 
tage to pull of a gentlewomans shooe, and made the 
goose go home barefoote. I was not there myself; 
but, understanding what a high tide there was like 
to be, wold not commit myself to the streame, but 

142 



lay quiet at Mr. Dormers, where we had your 
brothers coiiipauie now and then.'' 

To Carlton 7th Dec. 1G12 he w^rites: 

''Our Cambridge men are nothing so forAvard in 
affections; only I have some verses are set out 
and given to some few, but not publicly sold." 

Ballads, books, and literature of all kinds passed 
between these friends : 

"I have some papers of yours which I meane to 
leave at your sister Williams. I cannot send you 
Grobendoncs booke, for I presently restored it to 
Blacke Milles, of whom I borrowed it. Thus in 
haste I bid you farewell." 
From London, this 10th of May, 1600. 
Yours most assuredly, 

John Chamberlain. 
In Feb. 1602 he says : 

"The last I wrote you was about the tenth or 
eleventh of this present, and I sent it (with a 
booke or two) by one Oresham, that kepes a bugle 
shop in St. Martins." 

In the following we see the beginning of the end 
had come for the unfortunate young Earl of Essex: 

"The Erie of Essex hath ben somwhat crasie 
this weeke. The Lord Keeper was sent for yester- 
day to the Court, wherujwn his followers feed 
themselves fat with hope in this leane time of 
Lent. I heare that Sir Henry ^N'evill is become 
deafe since his going over, and therfore makes 
meanes to be called home. Litle Britain is left 
desolate, and the whole household translated into 
Essex. I know not how my last came to your 
hands, nor how this shall finde the way, but you 
see what shift I have made to peece out a letter 

143 



more tlien I meant in the beginning. And so in 
haste I commit you to God." 

From London, this last of February, 1600. 
f Yours most assuredly, 

i? John Chamberlain. 

To my assured goode trend 

Mr. Dudley Carleton 
i geve these, at Rycot, 

/ . or elswhere. 

There is a letter in Winwood's "Memorials" which 
leads me to believe Chamberlain must have been em- 
ployed as a "Gentleman quartely waiter" in the Court 
of James I. It is from Carleton who writes to Win- 
wood: 

"In Mr. Chamberlains absence, I come in quarter, 
and have waited so diligently at Court this Christ- 
mas, that I have matter enough, if the rejiort of 
Masks and Mummings can please etc." 

When Sir Francis Bacon was married in IG06 Carle- 
ton wrote Chamberlain 11 April IGO'G, "His chief guests 
were the three Knights Cope, Hicks, and Beeston." 

In this long correspondence we seek in vain for the 
name of iShakespeare. 

On iCecil's' death May 24, 1G12, Chamberlain says: 
"It drowned all other news." On March previous he 
wrote referring to Bacon's Essay on Deformaty saying: 

"Where in a chapter of Deformaty the world 
takes note he paints his little cousin to the life." 

Dr. Gilbert referred to, published his book ''De Mag- 
iiete' in IGOO, which is noticed by Bacon in his Novum 
Organum. 

The following letter is from Spedding's Letters and 
Life of Bacon, Vol. VIL : 

144 



To Sir Dudley Carleton 
My Lord Ambassadore, 

This gentleman 'Mr Jocelyn served me when I 
kept the great Seal. I found him honest and 
orderly. He desireth to be favoured in a CorouelPs 
Company, and hopeth to O'btain it by your good 
mean and your endeavor by my recommendation, 
which I would be very glad he should, and most 
heartily pray you to be his help for my sake. 

Ever resting Your Lordships very affectionate 
friend, 

Fr. St. Alban. 
Grays Inn 

15 of Ap. 1623. 

In Aubrey's Brief Lives Ed. by Clark, is the follow- 
ing regarding Bacon's widow: 

'•His Dowager married her gentleman Usher Sir 
Thomas Underhill, whom she made deaf and blind 
by too much Venus." 

and continues: 

"His Lordship was a good poet but concealed. * * * 
He had a delicate lively hazel eye, Dr. Harvey told me 
it w^as like the eye of a viper," and adds : "I have now 
forgot ivhat Mr Bushell says, whether his Lordship en- 
joyed his muse best at night or in the morning." 

Dudley Carleton's 2nd wife was Anne daughter of 
Sir Henry Glenham and widow of Paul Vicount Bajaiing. 
This lady was descended from the Bacons. 

Carleton's sister Bridget married Hercules Underhill, 
who in 1602 gave Shakespeare the quit-claim to New 
Place. This gentleman was Knighted by James I. in 
1G17. In 1599 a book written by John Hayward ''The 
first part of the Life of Hen. IV J' and dedicated to the 
Earl of Essex, much displeased the Queen. 

This is Chamberlain's account of it: 

145 



"For laeke of better matter, I seud you three or 
foure toyes to passe away tlie time. The letter of 
Squires conspiracie is well written, but the other 
of Dr. Dee is a ridiculous bable of an old impos- 
turing jugler. The vSilkeworme is thought to be 
Dr. iMuffetts, and in mine opinion is no bad piece 
of poetrie. The treatise of Henry the Fourth is 
reasonablie well written. The author is a younge 
man of Cambridge toward the civill lawe. Here 
hath ben much descanting about it, why such a 
storie shold come out at this time, and many ex- 
ceptions taken, especially to the Epistle, which was 
a short thing in Latin dedicated to the Erie of 
Essex, and oljjected to him in goode earnest, where- 
upon there was commaundment it shold be cut out 
of the booke; yet I have got you a transcript of it 
that you may picke out the offence if you can; for 
my part I can finde no such buggeswords, but that 
everything is as it is taken. I am going the next 
weeke (God willing) to Ivnebworth, in which con- 
sideration I am not greatly sory for your stayeng 
at Ostend, for I shold have injoyed but litle of 
your company, which perhaps will come better to 
passe at some other time. And so, wishing you 
all contentment both here and there, I commit you 
to God. 

From London, this first of March, 1599. 
Yours most assuredly, 

John Chamberlain. 

Francis Bacon wrote Devices and letters for Essex 
and may have composed the following to which Cham- 
berlain refers on Oct. 20, 1598 : 

"I have here sent you some verses that go under 
the name of the Lord of Essex when he was in 
disgrace, but I cannot w^arrant them to be his, nor 
made at that time.'' 

14G 



Again : 

"I have sent jou here a passionate letter of my 
Lord of Essex, the last he wrote to the Qiiene out 
of Ireland; and thus you see what a bundell I have 
made of all that comes to hand, and perchaunce 
wearied you as much as myself, and therefore w^ith- 
out further ceremonies I will bid you farewell." 
From London this 13th of June, IGOO. 

Ben Jonson's ^' Every Man in his Humo]-" may here 
be referred to in 1597: 

"We have here a new play of humors in very 
great request, and I w^as drawn alonge to it by 
the common applause, but my opinion of it is 
(as the fellow saide of the shearing of hogges), 
that there was a great crie for so litle wolle." 

On Dec. 8, 1598, he sends : 

"Thesaurus Geographicus, which may well serve 
your turn for old authors, but for the late w^riters ' 
and discoveries I thincke it will stand you in 
litle stead. I send you likewise such pedlarie pam- 
flets and three-halfpeny ware as we are served 
with; make the best use you can of them, and use 
your owne censure, but if I be not deceved some of 
the satires are passable." 

He refers to other books in this: 

"The French Inventairie is not come forth, the 
author being saide to be dead, but there is hope 
it will be found among his papers. Here is noth- 
ing come out this last mart worth the looking 
after; I do not thincke 'but you may tit your self 
better at Middleburg, for that many times thinges 
are current there that be here forbidden." 

Of the marriage of Bacon's Cousin Anne Russell he 
writes : 

"I doubt not but you have heard of the great 

147 



mariage at the Lady Russells, where the Queue 
was present, being caried from the water side 
in a curious chaire and lodged at the Lord Cob- 
hams ; and of the maske of eight maides of honour 
and other gentlewomen in name of the Muses that 
came to seeke one of theire fellowes, and of the 
knighting of Sir Fetipher with many goode wordes 
more then God knowes he was worthy of. And this 
being swmnia totalis of that I have to say, I com- 
mend you to the protection of the Almighty. 
From London, this 24th of June, 1600. 
Yours most assuredly, 

John Chamberlain. 
And again: 

''We shall have the great marriage on Monday at 
the Lady Russells, where it is saide the Queue will 
vouchsafe her presence, and lie at the Lord Cham- 
berlains, or the Lord Cobhams, whose marriage is 
thought likewise shalbe then consummated if it 
be not don already." 

Lady Russell's residence was close to the Blackfriars 
Theatre. 

The following written on Feb. 15, 1598, shows the 
bickerings at Court over Essex : 

"Our provisions for Ireland go forward with 
leaden feet, and the Erie of Essex commission is 
no neerer signing (in shew) then when I wrote 
last. The jarres continue as they did, if not worse, 
by daily renewing, and our musicke runs so much 
upon discords that I feare what harmonic they will 
make of it in the end. Many things passe which 
may not be written; but, in conclusion, IJiacos 
intra mttros iKCcatur ct extra, there is fault on all 
sides, and, quicquid del Iran t reges plectuntm^ Ach- 
ivi, whosoever offends the common wealth is pun- 
ished." 

148 



In this same letter he says: 

"I send you here certain odde epitaphs and 
epigrammes that go under the name of pasquils." 

Query — Were these written by Nicholas Breton? He 
wrote '^Pasquils Mad-Cap'^ and '^Pasquils" of other sorts. 
Nicholas Breton's mother was a daughter of John Bacon. 
After her husband's death (who left her a rich widow 
with several children) she married the poet George 
Gascoigne, a member of Gray's Inn. Gascoigne 
helped in the Kenilworth entertainment • given in honor 
of the Queen, in 1575. Nicholas Breton dedicated ^^Char- 
acters upon Essaies, Morall and Divine/' 1615, to Sir 
Francis Bacon. 



Shakespeare sought the good of all men. He above all 
others elevated the Actor, and uplifted Dramatic Art. On 
March 10th, 1582, Sir Francis Walsingham sent for Ed- 
mund Tilney "to cliuse out a Company of Players for her 
JMajesty" (see Appendix B.) Query — Was Hamlet's in- 
structions to the Players, originally given to these twelve 
men who were chosen for the Queene's Players? Later on 
the Poet corrected, and added many lines to the original 
sketch, which is greatly enlarged in the first Folio. 



149 




® h;tfi^ uJkxJUU/- . 

© M)x^Wiv owti^iJjy mt •6<^ Walt. 



I am indebted to Mr. Charles W. F. Goss, F. S. A., 
Hon, Librarian and Hon. Secretary of tlie London and 
Middlesex Archaeological Society, for the above map show- 
ing the actual site of Bacon's House in Noble Street, and 
its nearness to Silver Street, and Muggle Street. 



150 



SHAKESPEARE'S LODGINGS IN SILVER STREET. 

We find in Harper's Magazine March, 1910, Dr. W. C 
Wallace, through his researches in the Public Record Of- 
fice, London, discovered the earliest known signature of 
Shakespeare, dated May 11, 1612. This was signed to a 
deposition, as a witness in the Belott r. Montjoy suit. Dr. 
Wallace discovered that Shakespeare was a lodger in the 
house of Montjo}^, a Tire -maker, and that he had sojourned 
there from 1598 to 1612. 

This house was on the corner of Silver and Mugwell 
Streets, in a zone of interesting houses filled with historical 
Elizabethens. Bacon House was in Noble Street, and 
Stowe says: ''Then at the North end of Noble Street is 
the Parish Church of Saint Olave, in Silver Street." The 
only monument worth Stowe's notice in this Church was 
that of Lord Windsor's daughter, who died in 1600. 

Bacon's friend. Lord Windsor, had a house in Mugwell 
(now Monkwell) Street. Bacon's father owned property 
in the Parish of St. Botolph, without Bishops Gate, and 
in the Parish of St. Lawrence Old Jewry. 

If Francis Bacon befriended Shakespeare, as I think 
he did, the Poet's residence in the house of the Huguenot, 
Christopher Montjoy, is not to be wondered at. Anthony 
Bacon sympathized with the Huguenots. His long resi- 
dence in France enabled him to speak French perfectly, 
and much of his correspondence was in French. 

One of his familiar friends, Mr. John Castol, was the 
head of the French Church in Threadneedle Street, Lon- 
don, to which church the Belott r. Montjoy suit was sent 
for a final decision. "Mr. John Castol was minister of the 
French Church from 1581 to 1601 and was succeeded by 
Mr. Abraham Aurelius, who was minister from 1605 to 

151 



1C31." This I have learned from Mr. Charles W. F. Goss, 
F.S.A., who kindly sent me the information. In passing 
I may say that the Huguenot printer and bookseller, 
Astanius De Reinalme, 1580-lGOO, who resided in the 
Blackfriars, named in his will one Castol of the French 
Church, London. Also in Minshu's Diet., 1625, I find 
among the Subscribers 'the French Church Library in 
London.' 

This discovery of Dr. Wallace opens up a new vein of 
inquiry very interesting to the student. I find that Robert 
Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, in his Will 1612, mentions 
Thomas Belott. His father, the great Burleigh, had a 
Steward by that name. 

Barnaby Riche in his satirical pamphlet, 'The Honestie 
of This Age,' 1614, pictures for us the trade of a Tire- 
maker as follows: 

"1 \\ ould be loath to do Minerva wrong, 

To forge untruths, or deck my lynes with lyes ; 



I stand to note the Follies of this Age.' 

Among tliese Follies, Riche seems to be particularly 
severe on Tire-makers and Tires. This pamphlet was 
I)rinted two years after the Belott v. Moutjoy suit. It is 
said Shakespeare was indebted to 'Riche's Farewell to the 
^lilitaire Profusion,' 1581. King James found fault with 
this book, but after he became King of England he gave 
Riche a gift of a hundred pounds for some service or 
other performed in Scotland. 

According to Riche some of the fine ladies in their 
coaches would turn a deaf ear to the cry of beggars and : 

'Let them cry till their tongues do ake, my lady 
hath neyther eyes to see nor eares to heare, shee 
holdeth on lier way to the Tyre-maker's shoppe, 
where shee shaketh out her crownes to bestowe upon 
some new fashioned attire, that if we may say there 



be deformitie in art, upon such artificial deformed 
periwigs tliat they were fitter to furnish a Theatre 
or for her that in a stage play should represent some 
Hagge of Hell, than to be used by a Christian 
Avoman.' 

Did Mont joy make female wigs for the boy-actors? As 
Shalvespeare 'sojourned' in liis house fifteen years I have 
no doubt he brought him much Theatrical trade. Eiche 
continues : 

'And what are these they do call Atty re-makers? 
the first inventers of these monsterous periwigs? 
and the finders out of very many other like immodest 
attyres? What are these and all the rest of these 
fashion mongers? * * * if you will not acknowl- 
edge these to be idolmakers, yet you cannot deny 
them to be devil's enginers, ungodly instruments to 
decke and ornifie such men and women as may well 
be reputed to be but Idolle's' * * * ^\s these Attyre- 
niakers that within these forty years were not known 
by that name, and but nowe very lately they kept 
their lowzie commodities of periwigs, and their other 
monstrous attyres closed in boxes, they might not 
be scene in open sliow, and those women who used 
to weare them would not buy them but in secret. 
But noAv they are not ashamed to sette them forth 
upon their stalls, such monstrous May-poles of 
hayre, so proportioned and deformed, that but with- 
in these twenty yeares would have drawn the passers 
by to stand and gaze, and to wonder at them. * * * 
The ancient Romanes prohibited all sorts of people, 
as well men or women, from wearing gaudy gar- 
mentes. Players and Harletes only excepted; for 
to them there was tolleration in regard of their 
professions, * * * And from wlience commeth 
this wearing and imbrodering of long lokes, this 
curiositie that is used amongst men in freziling and 
curling of their hayre? * * * And are not our 

153 



gentlemen in as dangerous a plight now, (I mean 
those Apes of Fancy), that do looke so like Attyrc- 
makers maydcs, that for the dainty decking up of 
themselves might sit in any Seamsters shop in all 
the Exchange.' 

In Warton's Hist, of Poetry, Vol. Ill, he says: 

"On St. Olave's day, 1557, the holiday of the 
Church in Silver Street, which is dedicated to that 
Saint, was kept with much solemnity. At eight of 
the clock at night began a Stage-play, of goodly mat- 
ter, being the miraculous history of the life of that 
^aint, which continued four hours, and was con- 
cluded with many religious songs." 

Just across the street from this church stood Montjoy's 
house. 

Barber-Surgeons Hall was also in Monkwell Street. In 
1596 Thomas Xashe in 'Have with you to Saffron Walden' 
writes : 

"Letters do you term them? They may be letters 
Patent well enough for their tediousness; for no 
lecture at Surgeons Hall upon an Anatomie may 
compare with them in longitude." 
Indicating Xashe attended these lectures. 
Walpole's 'Anecdotes of Painting in England,' Vol. 1, 
p. 136, has : 

"Of Holbein's public works in England I find an 
account of only four. The first is that capitiil pic- 
ture in Barber Surgeons Hall of Hen. VIII., giving 
the charter to the company of Surgeons. The char- 
acter of His Majesty's bluff haughtiness is well 
represented, and all the heads are finely executed. 
The picture itself has been retouched but it is well 
known by Barons print. The physician in the mid- 
dle, on the King's left hand, is Dr. Butts, immor- 
talized by Shakespeare." 

154 



We can imagine the Poet standing before this great pic- 
ture before writing Hen. VIII. wherein Dr. Butts, Bacon's 
relative, is one* of the characters. Both Montjoy and 
Bellott seemed to have engaged two Gray's Inn lawyers, 
George Hartopp, Montjoy's lawyer was admitted to Gray's 
Inn April 21, ICOO, and Bellott's lawyer, Ralph Wormlaig- 
tou, was admitted May 26, 1598. Hartopp was the son of 
Wm. Hartopp of Burton Lazars, Co. Leicester. 



clever books "Is There A Shakespeare Problem f' has been 
by many answered in the affirmative. 

If the end of study is to find : 

''Things hid and harrd from common sense'' 

it seems to me, the one who dexterously sails clear of the 
Baconian Scj/Ua and the Stratfordian Chanjhdis will the 
sooner reach the shore of true discovery. 

Time, "the author of authors" — the father of Truth, will 
reveal the Problem — if there is one. 



loo 



BACON'S WAKWICKSHIRE KINSMEN AND THE 
UNDERHILLS 

By his marriage to Bacon's Aunt Mildred Cooke, Wil- 
liam Cecil took an immense stride foi'W'ard, and it ad- 
vanced him to higher place. The Cooke's and the Bacon's, 
had for generations followed the Court, and were allied 
to the best families in England. Pedigrees Avere William 
Cecil's hobby. He drew up a numiber of genealogies of 
the Kings and Queens of England, Germany, and France. 
Mildred Cooke's grandmother was a Belknap of the illus- 
trious family Avho oAvned large manors in Warwickshire 
and elsewhere, and on his mother's side Robert Cecil 
was well born. The Bacon's Anthony and Francis, could 
rightfully claim an illustrious ancestry from both pater- 
nal and maternal i^rogenitors. 

Augustus Jessopp in '^One Generation of a Norfolk 
House," tells us Father Parsons well knew Cecil's Aveak- 
ness for fictitious pedigrees and says : 

''Cecil's birth w^as comparatively obscure, at 
least he could boast of no forefathers who had 
belonged to the English gentry. Cecil kneAA^ it, 
and was sore at the thought; but, if his grand- 
father was nobody, might not his remote ancestors 
have been princes and nobles? (So he gave himself 
to genealogy, and was forever hunting for some 
pedigree Avhich might fit on to himself and his 
progenitors; this pedigree maldng AA'as one of the 
great man's foibles. In the iState Paper Offtce and 
at Hatfield there are AAiiole volumes full of these 
genealogical notes, and it appears that Cecil never 
could shake off the fascination Avliich such re- 
searches exercised over his mind. 

A few months after the i>ublication of the 

156 



edict, and immediately upon the completion of the 
first draught of the Answer to it, a copy in ]MS. 
was forwarded to the Treasurer )by one of his spies 
in Flanders. ^Oecil w^as gratified by the prompti- 
tude of his agent, and addressed to him a letter 
of thanks for his zeal, and at the same time added 
some comments upon the reply; Parsons had 
laughed at him for his lowiy birth, retorting upon 
him a sneer which the edict itself contained. Cecil 
in his letter had ^betrayed his mortification, and 
^vriting to the spy, entered into particulars about 
liis supposed ancestors, claiming descent from I 
Welsh princes, and asserting that his family had 
originally been settled at Sitsil in AVales. When 
the Eesponsio was published, there before the eyes ' 
of amazed Europe was Cecil's own letter, trans- 
lated into Latin, with all its ridiculous preten- 
sions exposed. Parsons was vastly pleased, and 
made himself infinitely merry; he did not spare 
his victim; all the resources of sarcasm and irony 
w^ere used to sting the Treasurer, and Cecil, deeply 
mortified, writhed under the lash. Doubtless all 
possible means were used to keep the book out of 
England ; but besides the interest which the Catho- 
lics had in giving it a wide circulation, there 
were too many people in high position, Avho had 
no great love to the Lord Treasurer, to alloAv of 
such a bonne bouche as this bitter and telling at- 
tack to remain unknown, unread and unsold. 
Vexed and intensely mortified, Cecil Avas weak 
enough to betray the pain of the sting; and w^hen 
Philopater's ibook could no longer be suj>pressed, 
with figety ill-temper he printed a sort of reply, 
tiding to make the best of an attack which might 
more safely have been left alone." 

The ancestor of Sir Xicholas Bacon Ivnt. Lord Keeper 
of the Great Seal, was Grimbaldus, a ^^rman related 

157 



to William Earl Warren, with Avliom lie came into Eng- 
land at tlie Conquest. 

In 14,02 a Will Bakon was Prior of the Convent de 
Marstoke Warwick. The Belknai:)s OA\Tied manors in 
AVhitechurch, Kingswood, and Griffe all in the county 
of Warwickshire, pp. 771-2 Dugdale. Whitechurch was 
just 51^ miles from iStratford-on-Avon, and I find Nich- 
olas Underhill was an incumbent of White Church in 
1571 to wliich he was presented fby Bacon's kinsman, 
Anthony Cooke Ar. P 484 Ibid. This Underhill was 
related to the Underhills who owned 'New Place after- 
wards 0Tv^led hy 'Shakespeare. 

This is the earliest link I find between the Cooke 
family and the Underhills. The Lord Chancellor Bacon 
in IG'18 dreAY up a list of his men servants wherein he 
names one Underhill, one of his gentlemen waiters. 
Query, Could this have been the gentleman Usher, who 
shortly after Lord Verulam's death married his widow? 
I'm inclined to think so. 

The Cooke's were connected with the Belknaps, Shel- 
ley's Sudeley's and with ''that great family of Montford 
Lords of Belderset" in Warwickshire. The Belknaps 
owned the Manor of Henley in Arden, situated in the 
Forest of Arden. Henr}' VII granted Wedgnock Parlv Avitli 
the gardens and waters in the Park to Edward Belknap 
Esq., of the body for life. Dugdale says "this is one of 
the most ancient Parks in England," and further: 
"Whicli Sir Edward * * * being a man of great note, 
had his residence here and rebuilt the manor house, one 
of the fairest structure of Timber that I have seen. On 
several parts whereof his Arms are cut in wood quar- 
tering the eoats of Sudley, Montfert, and Boteler, and 
by his last will and Testiment dated 12 Hen 8. be- 
queathed it to dame Alice his wife for term of her life, 
after wiiich it came to John Shelley Esq cousin and heir 
to the said EdAvard by Alice his sister." Dugdale pp. 
199-200. 

15S 



Bacon House in London was formerly called Shelley 
House. Un 1577 William Fleetwood the Recorder of 
London writes the following letter from Bacon House 
to Lord Burleigh, Avherein he pictures Bacon's grand- 
mother, widow of Sir Anthony Cooke, in all her state, 
and also, speaks of ''Mrs Blackwells house in the Black- 
friars." This was the house which adjoined the one sold 
to Shakespeare in 1612-13. 

« * */ Vpon Thursday last Mr Garter and 
Xorthway not as kynges but as ffrendes, wt Mr 
Thomas Pole and myself were at Romford at the 
burying of mr iCade of the Ducliie we did w^eare 
black/ At dyner Mr Pole taryed not, for he had 
taken a great surfett wt eating of fresh pork the 
day before at the Musters/ The Deane of Powles 
l^reached/ At the Sermon was my worshipfull 
fryude mrs Cook of Gwydy hall and her gentle- 
Avouian and trayne, but she Avould not tarry dyner/ 
Ivatheryn Cams the late Justice wiffe my 'Contry 
woman wt all her pryde and popery is this week 
gone (as I trust) to god/ she died in Bisshop 
Thirlbys chamber in mrs Blackwells howse in the 
black ffyers/ 

So when Ave consider Francis Bacon's maternal family 
the Cooke's were related to so many of the great War- 
wickshire families my conjecture that Bacon met Shake- 
speare in his youth w^hen visiting in Warwickshire, may 
be more than a fine theory. 

Through the Montferts the Cloptons came into pos- 
session of €lopton in Hen IIL time. 'Teter de Montfert 
granted it to James de iClopton and his heirs by the name 
of the Mannour of Clopton." Dugdale. The Montferts 
also oAVTied all the village of Charlecote and in Rich L 
time gave it to Walter. ''This Walter was Paternally a 
Montfert" and from this Walter (who was a Knt.) 
descended William that assumed the name of Lucy" 
ihid, 

159 



"Idlicote in 33 Hen. 8, was given to Thomas 
Cawarden Esq & Eliza his wife, and his lawful 
heirs. He left no heirs, and in 4. Eliza, she grant- 
ed it to Ludwick Oreville and others hut soon 
after to Underhill as it seems for in 12 Eliza, did 
. Will Underhill die seized thereof, leaving Will his 
son & heir XIII. years of age & upwards whose 
granchild iSir Hercules Underhill Ivt. now en- 
joys it." Dugdale 458. 

In his choice of a second w^ife the great Cecil made 
no mistake. It cannot be denied that he was a very 
great man, and had the ability to sway Elizabeth by 
making her believe she governed England. In this way 
he became as Francis Baeon called him "the Atlas of this 
Commonwealth . ' ' 

That courteous gentleman Sir Thomas Copley related 
to the Cooke's through the Belknaps, and so persecuted 
for his religion writes to Burleigh from Paris 21 of 
July 1580: 

Right Honorable 

iMy dewtie promised after I had iinissed my 
other long letter to your Lordship to move the 
same to be the more favorable to me. * * * But 
massife thing or of great value I resolved with 
my self w^as not to be sent, as well becaus my 
thinn purse ^vns not ha^ble to yieeld gowlden 
guiftes, as chieefly for the experience I have had 
of your Lordship's great and incorrupted mynde, 
utterli avertid from the receivyng of suche pres- 
ents, * * * In the end came to my minde a 
Jewell I had that I thought could not be but very 
welcome to your Lordship to witt a Genealogie 
of my Lady" [who w^as his second cousin] "your 
wive's house by the Belknap his side. I thought 
once to have made a fayr coppie of it to send to 
your Lordship, but after considering that neither 

160 



this woold put in hazarde to lose the commodite 
of the next post, which woold be a great hin- 
drance to me (and a protraction of the speed I 
wishe and my case requirith in the answer of my 
suite) and therewithal weyeng that in these mat- 
ters of pedigrees shewe of antiquite geevith more 
autherite than nueness and ibeautie, I did rather 
choose to make present to your Lordship even of 
my originall, and for myself at laisure to take an- 
other coppie out of that my coosen Bacon [An- 
thony Bacon who was then in Paris] made to be 
drawn out of myue, which of late I lent him to that 
end. I pray your Lordship accept it at nu' hands 
herewith in good parte, for if I had ought that I 
thought might geeve your Lordship more content- 
ment, I would have sent it. Thereby my coosins 
your children may perceeve that as your Lordship 
geevith very good accompt of their gentell bludd 
on their father's side so they want not on their 
mother's side to make any of them heerafter capa- 
ble of the best commandree may fauU in that 
realme or ells wheare, or of any other order crosse 
or chanourie either .for men or for lady's wherof 
heer abrode ther be store for the maytenance of 
the yoonger brood of noible houses" . . . 

Your good Lordships very fast and assured at 
commandment during life 

T. Copley. State Papers Doru. EJi.:. c.ri. 27 



161 



WA^ ANNE CECIL THE PROTOTYPE OF HELENA 
IN "ALL'S WELL"? 

Edward de Vere tlie seventeentli Eaii of Oxford wlio 
broke the heart of Bacon's cousin Anne Cecil, by in- 
human treatment, Avas admitted to Gray's Inn in 1567. 
Robert Greene dedicated to him in I'SSI: ''The Garde of 
Fancie." The character of this nobleman was despica- 
ble. His name is not mentioned among those who wit- 
nessed the Oesta- Grayorum for he was not esteemed 
by the Bacons, the (Cecils or any of their friends. Sir 
Egerton Brydges in his Reprint of ''The Parldise of 
Dainty Devices" referring to Oxford says: 

"His character seems to have been marked with 
haughtiness, vanity, and affectation. He aped Ital- 
ian dresses, and was called the Mirrour of Tus- 
canismo. His rank however, and his illustrious 
family commanded the respect of a large portion of 
the literary world; and among his eulogists, were 
Watson, Lily, Golding, Munday, Greene, Lock, 
and Spenser." 
Young Talbot writing to his parents says: 

"My Lo. of Oxforth is lately growne into great 
credite; for the Q,' Matie delitithe more in his par- 
sonage, and his daunsinge, and valientnes, then 
any other: I tliinke Sussex dothe back him all 
that he can; if it w^ere not for his fyckle hed he 
would passe any of them shortly. My Lady Burgh- 
ley unwisely ha the declared herself e, as it were, 
gelious, wch is come to the Queue's eare; whereat 
she hathe bene not a litell offended wth hir, but 
now she is reconsiled agayne. At all theise love 
matters my Lo. Treasurer winketh, and will not 
meddle any way." Lodge Ills. Vol II. 

162 



In a note Lodge observes: 

"This was Edward de Yere, tlie seventeentli 
Earl of Oxford of his family. The following an- 
ecdote confirms Mr. Talbot's hint of his eccentric 
character. When the Duke of Norfolk, Avhom he 
entirely loved, was condemned, he applied to Lord 
Burghley, whose daughter he had married, pas- 
sionately beseeching him to interfere in the Duke's 
behalf; but his request being refused, he told 
Burghley, with the greatest fiivj, that he Avould re- 
venge himself hy ruining the Countess: And he 
made his threat good; for from that hour he treat- 
ed her with the most shocldng brutality, and,, 
having broke her heart, sold and dissipated the 
most part of his great fortune. He died June 24, 
1604." 

The Earl of Oxford's cavillations contra Lord 
Burghley. [Written in Burleigh's hand.] 

[1576.] — Injuries and unldnd parts [of the 
Earl] : leaving his issue female unprovided of land; 
rejecting his wife at her coming to him without 
cause shewed; continuing to forbear from her com- 
pany without cause ; detaining her apparel, and all 
her chamber stuff for the space of three months; 
suffering false reports to be made touching her 
honesty; quarrelling against the Lord Treasurer 
for matters untrue and of no value, that is to 
say :— 

[Cavillations.] 

1. That Clopton and Faunt w^ere by him main- 
tained. 

2. That Denny, the French boy, and others 
that lay in wait to kill Clopton, were punished 
by the Lord Treasurer. 

3. That he had not his money made over 
sea so speedily as he desired. 

163 



4. That liis wife was most directed by her 
father and mother. 

5. That Hubbard Avoiild not deliver to the 
Earl his writings, Avherein he was maintained by 
the Lord Treasurer. 

[Answers.] 

They were committed by the Lord Treasurer, 
and no cause could be shewed of their desert, and 
they were set at liberty iby the Earl himself with- 
out knowledge of the Lord Treasurer. 

They were imprisoned by order of the Queen 
given to her Council, as they deserved. 

He had in one year 3,000?. and 2,700Z. by the 
credit of the Lord Treasurer, when the Earl's mon- 
ey could not be had. 

iShe must ibe most directed by her parents when 
she had no house of the Earl's to go to, and. in her 
sickness and childbed only looked to by her par- 
ents. 

He offered to deliver all, so he might be saved 
harmless against the EarPs creditors, who threat- 
ened to arrest him. CaV Hatfield M8S. Vol. II. P. 
I'i'h 

The following excerpts are from the European Maga- 
zine, June 1788, p. 389 : 

"To the Editor of the European Magazine 

iSiR, 

The enclosed epitaphs form part of a poetical 
collection, addressed to the Bight Honourable the 
Earl of Oxenford, &c. by one John Southern, 4to. 
black letter, the title-page wanting. This book is 
so rare, that no other fragment of it appears 
to have been met with by the most vigilant among 
our ancient and modern collectors. . . . His 
patron, Edward Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Ox- 
ford, flourished early in the reign of Elizabeth, 

164 



and died at an advanced age, in the second year 
of lier successor. 

* * * The name of his Countess, however, 
(who was Anne, the eldest daughter of the fa- 
mous Cecil Lord iBurleigh) not being inserted in 
any catalogue of rhyming Peeresses, I send you 
four of her productions, undoubtedly printed in 
her lifetime by iMaster Southern aforesaid; and 
trust that I have thereby ascertained her right to 
a jjlace in some future edition of Mr. Walpole's 
very instructive and entertaining work. 

* * * A modern reader will feel himself lit- 
tle interested by the mythological lamentations 
of the Countess. Lady Oxford, perhaps, only 
aimed at the character of a poetess, because her 
mother had been attached to literature, and poetry 
was the favorite amusement of her husband. She 
died at Queen Elizabeth's court at Greenwich, 
June 6, 1588, and on the 25th was pompously in- 
terred in Westminster Abbey. * * * '' 

The babe whom the Countess mourns so dolefully 
was born in 1576 and only lived two days. 

"IN Dolefull wayes I spend the wealth of my time, 
Feeding on my heart that ever comes agen, 
Since the ordinances of the Destlns hath ben 
To end of the Saissons of my yea res the prime. 

With my sonne, my gold, my nightingale, and 
rose*, 
Is gone; for t'was in him and no other where: 
And well though mine eies run downe like 
fountaines here. 
The stone w^il not speake yet, that doth it enclose. 
And, Destlns and Gods, you might rather have 
tanne 

*"Gold, the best of all mettelles ; nightingale, the sweetest of all 
byrdes ; and roses, the fairest of all flowers." 

165 



My tweiitie yeeres, than the tAvo dales of my 
Sonne. 
And of this world what shall I liope, since I knoe 
That in his respect it can yeeld me hut mosse ; 
Or Avhat should I consume any more in w^oe, 

When Destins, Gods, and Worlds are all in my 
losse. 

She was married at the age of fifteen. The date of the 
year of her marriage avouM determine that of her verses. 

THE hevens, death, and life, have conjured my yll. 
For death hath take away the breath of my 

Sonne : 
The lievens receve, and consent, that he hath 
donne, 
And my life dooth keej^e me heere against my Avill. 
But if our life be caus'de with moisture and 

heate, 
I care neither for the death, the life, nor skies; 
For I'll sigh him wannth, and weat him with 
my eies, 
(And thus I shall be thought a second Promet.) 
And as for life, let it doo me all despite; 

For if it leave me, I shall goe to my childe ; 
And it in the hevens, there is all my delyght. 
And if I live, my vertue is immortal : 
So that the hevens, death and life, when they 

doo all 
Their force, by sorrowful vertue th' are be- 
guild. 

IDALL for Adon nev'r shed so many teares, 

Nor Thef for Pelidj nor Phaehus for Hyacin- 

thus ; 
Nor for Atis the mother of Prophetesses , 

As for the death of Bulhecke the Gods have cares. 

166 



At the brute of it the Aphrodifan Qiieene 
Caused more silver to distyll fro her eyes 
Then when the droppes of her cheekes raysed 
Daisyes, 

And to die with him, mortal! she would have beene. 
The Charits for it breake their peruqs of golde, 
The Muses, and the Npmphes of the caves, I 
beholde 

All the Gods under Olympus are constraint 
On Laches, Clothon, and Atropos to plaine; 

And yet beautie for it doth make no complaint, 
For it liv'd with him, and died with him againe. 

Others of the FOWRE LAST LYKEvS of other that 
she nutde also. 

11. MY Sonne is gone, and with it death and my 

sorrow : 

12. But death makes mee aunswere, Madame, 

cease these mones, 

13. My force is but on bodies of blood and 

bones ; 

14. And that of yours is no more now but a 

shadow." 
The Countess appeals to death to end her sorrow 
and death answers: 

"My force is but on bodies of blood and bones; 
And that of yours is no more now but a shadow." 
In Alls Well, Act VIII, Helena who is supposed to 
be dead enters and the King exclaims: 
Is't real, that I see? 
Helen replies: 

lNo, my good lord; 

'Tis but a shadow of a wife you see. 
The name, and not the thing. 
In 3 Hen. VI. 11, 5, there is a line which reminds 
one of the following Epitaph of the broken hearted 
mother : 

"My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre." 

167 



11. AMPHION's wife Avas turned to a roc-ke. 

12. How well I hade beene, had I had such 

adventure, 

13. For then I might againe have been the 

Sepulcure 

14. Of him that I bare in mee so long ago." 
After the death of her son the Countess of Oxford 

bore a daughter on May 20th 1587 who became the wife 
of Philip Herbert Earl of Montgomery in IGO'S. 

There is a passage in Osborn's ^'Traditional Memoirs'' 
1689, P. 456, which helps to confirm my belief that the 
]7th Earl of Oxford w^as Shakespeare's Bertram. Kef er- 
ring to the fickle worthless affections of James I. Os- 
borne says: ''But however remote his affections were, 
he durst not banish Kamsey the Court, a poor satisfac- 
tion for [Philip] Herbert, that w^as left nothing to tes- 
tifie his manhood but a beard and children, by that 
daughter of the last great Earl of Oxford, whose lady was 
hroitght to his Bed under the notion of his Mistress, and 
from such a virtuous deceit she is said to proceed.'' 

Did Shakespeare learn from Francis Bacon the secret 
of his cousin's sorrow? Osborne was Philip Herbert's 
Master of the Horse. He was also acquainted with the 
great Bacon, and greatly admired him. A John Osborn of 
Kyrby Byden in Norfolk married Alice daughter of 
Henry Bacon of ^N'orwich. Perhaps Francis Osborn was 
connected with this family. 

The King in ''AlFs Well that Ends Weir has a 
malady that is pronounced incurable by his physicians. 
Bertram (Act I. 11) asks: 

Ber. What is it my good lord the King lan- 
guishes of? 
La fen answers: 

A fistula, my lord. 

Ber. I heard not of it before. 

Laf. I would it were not notorious. 

Queen Elizabeth had long suffered with this very 
disease — a fistula in her leg. 

168 



APPENDIX A. 

HISTOEY OF THE MANOR AND ANCIENT 
BARONY OF CASTLE COMBE IN THE COUN- 
TY OF WILTS, BY G. POULETT SCROPE, 
ESQ., M. P. 1852. 

(Mem. — The passages within brackets are the varia- 
tions or additions made in the complaint as sent in to 
Falstofl's executors.) 

It is to remembre that in the firste yere that my moder 
was maried to my fader Fastolf, he of his plesnre solde 
me to William Gascoyne, that tyme chief justice of this 
land, for v.c. marke. The Avich he had in his possession 
a iij. yere. Thorugh the wiche sale I tooke sekenesses 
that kept me a xiij. or xiiij. yere swyng: whereby I am 
disfigured in my persone and shall be whilst I lyve. 

Item, he bought me ayene, and than was I serteyn 
yeris under his governaunce, in siche penurie that I was 
fayne to selle a place in Kent called Hevre for v.c. marcs, 
and therewith I put myself into service with my lord of 
Gloucestre. My seid fader conseyving that, sent to my 
seide moder siche lettres as plesed hym, thurgh the wich 
I was feyne to go to hym over the see, with a yoman 
and a page on myn owne coste, God knoweth I beyng 
that tyme right seeke. 

Item, whan I was comyn to hym, it plesed hym than 
of his grace to showe me so good fader-hoode, that I was 
right glad to wayte opon hym to do hym service, though 
I were unworthy; he promyssing at that tyme to make 
me yerely iij. tymes worthe the lodechip of Wyghton 
(under the Wold in Yorkshire, the wich is xl the yere.) 

Item, than I obeyed his desire, and lefte my lorde of 
Gloucestris service, thurgh the wiche I loste his good 

169 



lordecliip, whereas, lie was set at that tyme to a put ine 
in possession of the He of Man; or elles I have had a 
reasonable recompense therefore, as Sir William Cheney, 
that tyme chief justice, sent me woorde to Ilonnefleu be 
a man that was with hym, the wicli levith yit, (called 
William Marchall.) 

Item, than I served the king and my seid fader at 
Honnefleu as I coude, unto the tyme that my seyde fader 
took partie Avith the marchall of the town more than with 
me that was his son in laAve and his servaunt, the wich 
methought an unkyndenes, I beyng in the right (and they 
in the wrong). 

Item, than be his licence I come into Yngland to my 
seid moder ; and I was not there fully a yere, but that he 
sente home worde that I sliolde paie for my mete and 
my drynke (or be voided), I havyng no lyveloode where- 
with to paie (for I was ever afore in his governance), 
wich caused me to marie for default, and not al ther 
moste to myn availe. But I was fayne to take the tyme 
as it come; (Then was I feyn to schyfte me by marriage, 
as God wolde geve me grace; God knoweth whate hyn- 
deraunce y hadde by that marriage with hys menye, the 
Avhich hurte y canne welle tell and y schalle.) 

Item, the seid mariage of necessite caused me to be 
bounde in siche bondes that ever sitliyn I have levyed 
in grete peyne and thought, or ellis I had not endured 
as I have don hiderto; and .yit it myght not wele aben 
as it is of myn labour withoute the grete grace of God: 
for be straunche menes thurogh a sute made be my seid 
fader, I was dissessed of all the lyveloode that I had be 
my mariage, havynge wyff and childer and serteyn ser- 
vaunts : and so endured iij. yere withoute any refuge save 
of God. 

Item, than for very nede I was fayne to selle a litill 
doughter I have, for myche lesse than I sliolde a don be 
possibilite, wherewith I lyve yit, and have litill ellis, but 
if it be mete and drinke: the wich as in that it is better 

170 



tliau I am worthe, so that I had assigned me a dute to 
have lyved with. 

Item, notwithstamUng: the gret payne that I have en- 
tliired, I am in donte that aftir the dyssese of my seid 
fader, siche lyveloode as I am borne to have, shnlde stande 
in siche trouble be the mene of certyn astates and 
feotfements made unto diverce persones unknowen to me, 
be my seid fader, that I shoulde not mow esyly entre 
without trouble: for nowthir I knowe where to have the 
evidences that longeth to the seid lyveloode, ne the entent 
of the seide f eoff ementis ; ne no man for me that I wote 
of. 

Item, lowly besechyng my seid fader to remembre with 
these premisses how longe that he hath had the seid 
lyveloode that I am born to, and under what forme as 
in stroppe and waste: for me semeth every forme under 
the sotilte of lawe is no clere concience. The wich materes 
me seid fader can consey\^e myche better than ever I 
coude. (Afterwards corrected into, Item, entirely be- 
sechyng you to remembre with these premisses how longe 
that he hath had the seid lyveloode that I am born to; 
and under what forme, and what waste there hathe be 
done be him, to make siche restitucion as the soule may 
be eased, and that I may have cause to pray therefore.) 

In a later draft the last two paragraphs are omitted, 
and the following substituted for them. 

Item, my seyde fader outelawed me for the sum of 
xl.li. or ever y wyste thereof, tlie which y wolde not had 
bene done for a ]MMi. and yet he had certeyn plate and 
«tuffe of myn, which ys remembred in myn owne fadres 
testement, to the valew of ij°, li. or more. 

Item, he hath kepte fro me sith my seyde moder dis- 
sessed, ayenste all gode conscyence or tytylle of lawe, 
ij. maneres, Oxendon and Hamthwayte, and they amounte 
yerely a xlvj.li. Sum yn xiiii. yere, vj^ xliiij. li. 

Item, he hath kepte fro me as longe xx. li. yerely of 
the maner of Wyghton, the wliych he promysed me to 

171 



liave bad at the dyssesse of 1113' sevde mod^T, whereof y 
liad the fiirste yere xv.li. at hys commandement, payed 
by the bandys of bys servaimte Howes : the resydew hereof 
drawetb a ij^ Ixv.li. 

Item, there ys loste of iiiyn enberytaimce by my seyde 
faders defaute, viij.li. in Castelcombe and xl, s. in I>ent- 
ley; the purchase hereof, after xx" wyntres purchase, 
amounteth \f. li. 

Item, he bath done grete waste in my seyde eubery- 
taunce, the whych canne not be restored wyth a MMi., 
and he hath had it li.j. yer and more, and in alle that 
tyme never iljd it gode, but wastyd it. And to conceyve, 
fortbir, sith my seyde modyr dyssessyd, Imth bad it 
ayenste alle gode conscyence, sav^^nge by myn agrement/^ 
for the gode wylle that y bad to hym, the whych gode 
wylle mesemeth wolde be coney dered. 

Then follows his general Bill of Charges against the 
estate of Fastolf for these damages and losses : 

In the firste yere that my fader Fastolf was maried to 
my moder he solde me for v''. marcs, withoute any titill 
or right, thorugh which sale as in this worlde my per- 
sone was disfigured for ever. Wherfor I clayme the seid 
some of v'', marks, without the hurt of my disfiguryng. 

Item, be bought me ayene; so he bought me and soilde 
me as a beste, ay ens al ryght and la we, to myn hurt more 
than M\ marks. 

'' Item, be a deceit he kept from me xxx" yeres togedir 
and more xl.li. worthe of lyveloode, in a toune called 
Wygbton undir the Wolde, in Yorkshire, for the whicbe 
I clayme restitution by the saide time of xijMi. withoute 
the ruynoste of my lyvelode. 

Item, he kept fro me, ayens all lawe and right, two 
manoires, that is to say, Oxendon and Hamtbwayte, xv. 
yeres, the which ar w^orth xlvj.li. in yerely value, for the 
which I aske to have vjMiij'^^x.li. 

^'This passage proves that Stephen Scrope had. as previously sug- 
gested, confirmed the settlement made by his mother on Fastolf in 1410 
of a life-interest in these estates. 

172 



Item, for plate and stuft'e of myn, the which is specy- 
fled in myn fadris testament to me bequethed, and my 
seide fader Fastolf had it ever to his use, I aske restitu- 
ciou thereof as hiAve and right requireth. 

Item, for tlie strop and waste of my enheritaunce, which 
is v", marks worthe by yere, the which was in the handes 
of my seide fader liij. yeres. It cannot be repaired with 
M\ marks. 

Fastolf, it appears to the "piteous complaint" of Scrope 
when originally sent to him, but of course not in a satis- 
factory manner; on which the following further replica- 
tion was drawn up by the unhappy sufferer : 

Here by the commandments of my fader Fastolf, foloweth 
my replycations : — 

First, where it is sej^le that I was nat solde be my 
fader, Fastolfe, to the Justice William Gascoyne, but at 
the instance, plesir, and grete prayer of my lady my moder, 
to that, saving the displesir of me seyde fader, I have herd 
her sey the contrarie. Neverthelesse mesemeth that neyther 
he ne she had noon auctorite to selle me; wherfor I con- 
ceyve that I was wTongfully doon to. As to the remanent 
of that answere, I can, be my seyde faderes, leve, replie 
better be mouth than be writing. 

As to the second answere, touching the repayments to 
the seide Justice Willyam Gascoyne for me, saving my 
seyde faderys displesir, I suppose it shal be founde be 
the reporte of some jentilmen of Yorkeshyre, that the 
sunimes were nat so grete as it is rehersed in the seyd 
seconde answere. Natwithstanding how that ever it were, 
I had the soor and felt the hurte. And where it is seyde 
that my seyde fader was nat bounden to finde me in my 
youthe, the lawe knowe I nat, but wel I wote, that if a 
woman the which is to marry have many chylder, it is 
often seen that men be daungerous (afraid) to take sych 
women for the charge of theyre childer. As to the remanent 
of that answere I can, be my seyde faderes leve, (replie) 
thereto better be mouth than be wTiting. 

173 



As to the iij. answere, mj seyde fader seitli be prom- 
issed me never to make me jerely worth iij. times the 
lordship of ^^'yo;hton, saving the displesir of his good fader- 
hode, I can wel telle the place where it was sejde, that 
is to say, in a gardin in the parke of Alausom. As to the 
remanent of that answere I can, be my seide faderis leve, 
replye thereto better be mouth than be writing. 

As to the iij. answere, I sey nat in my iiij. article that 
my seyde fader wrote to me to com to hym, ne desyred 
me to leve my lorde of Gloucestris servyse, whoos soule 
God assoyle. But I have tolde the causes of all in my 
iij. article and in the iij. replication. As to the remanent 
of that answere I can, be the sevde licence, replie thereto 
better be mouth than be wryting. 

As to the V. answere, I sey that I rehersed noo thing 
in my v. article but as trouth was and is, save my seyde 
fader may saye as it pleseth hym. The remanent of that 
answere I shal replye thereto be mouth, be my seide faderes 
leve. 

As to the vj. answere, where it is seyde, as it pleseth 
my seyde fader, that myn outrageousenes caused moche 
thing, I have, mesemeth, answered thereto in the iij. repli- 
cation. And where it is seyde I sholde suffre myn owne 
faderes feffes (to) selle certejne of myn owne faderes lyfe- 
lood, every reasonable man may conceyve that the suff- 
raunce most nedes a been, for I was at that time but x or 
xij. yere of age, and fer loygned froo th(ere) be sevde fader 
P\astolf thorugh hys forseyde sale made to the Justice 
William Gascoyne, as at that tyme my seyde fader ded 
with me as it plesed hym. To the remanent shall I replye 
be mouth, and he wil geve me leve. 

As to the vij. answere, I sey that lyvelode coude I noon 
gete, to I woold me maryed, and maried coude I nat be 
withoute that I made streyte bondes, what may be sup- 
posed than myght folwe thereof, etc. But and it had plesed 
me seyde fader to avaunced me to lifelode, or that I had 
sette me to maryage, I wolde have trosted to God, have 

174 



maryed to more avyse that I ded, aud to a kept me oute 
of the daungeres that I have ben in. And to the remanent 
of that answere I can replie be mouth, if my seyde fader 
wille geve me leve. 

As to the viij. answere, where there is thoughte moch 
imkindenes in me symple persone ; I dar saufelye seye, and 
my seyde fader had a son of his owne body begeten, he 
shold nat have had better wylle to adoon hym servyse 
and plesir than I had. To the surplus of that answere, 
be the license aforeseyde, I can well replie be mouth. 

As to the ix. answere, where my seyde fader seyth that 
he is enheryted during his lyfe as wele as I, I wene nat 
soo: for I am com of the blode and he but be gifted of 
jentilnes. And where it is sej^de that my seyde lady and 
moder wold have j^oven it to hym in fee, I have herde her 
sey the contrarie, and soo hath oother that yet lyveth 
moo than I. And where it is seyde that I have confermed 
it to my seyde fader hys lyfe, saving his displesir, than 
mesemeth I ought the better to have hys gode grace, and 
nat to be rebuked for my piteous complent. For it is 
now more than v. yere sen my seyd lady my foder dis- 
cessed, whoos soul God of hys hygh mercy assoile.^^ Soo 
thorough that confirmation he had everi yere sythen v". 
marke, the whych amounteth ij™. and v*'. marke. To the 
surplus of that answere I can Avel replye, be my seyde 
faderes leve. 

If I have sej^de in tliees foresej^de replications oother 
wyse than reson and conscience woold of necligence, sim- 
plenes, or unkonnynge, I aske pardon and grace. And 
where it semeth to my seide fader that I sholde nat 
akepte thees articles soo longe in my breste; forsooth be 
my wille I wold a kepte tlieym longer, for I seyde at all 
tymes that the hye witte and the grete troutli and jentil- 
nesse of my seyde fader knewe full wele what was for to 

"This fixes the date of this paper 1452, the Lady Milliceut having 
died in 1466. 

175 



do : for an oolde proverb sevtli, a wyse man be the halfe 
tale wote what the hoole tale meneth. 

As to my x. article, the whycli I sente a parte be Moaster 
Clement Denston, I have noon answere. 

(Endorsed) — Escriptz de moy a mon pere F. 

It seems likeh^ that Stephen Serope got no more redress 
in the end from Fastolf's execntors for the losses he so 
plaintively catalognes than he had from the knight himself 
Avhile living. His circumstances, however, must have im- 
proved somewhat on his at length possession, being above 
the age of sixty, of his maternal estates. 

Among the evidences of the straits to which he was driven 
by his embarrassments are a bond for 400 marks to John 
Dereward, dated 1448, and a revisionary grant of a mes- 
sage in Castle Combe to John Whitehorne, clothier, dated 
1457, to take effect after the death of Fastolf." 



176 



APPENDIX B. 

EDMUND TILNEY, MASTER OF REVELS 

That the reader may understand the absolute despotism 
of the Master of the Revels, under the Queen and the 
Lord ChamberLnin, I give in full the following- most inter- 
esting and important historical document.^ 

A NEW DOCUMENT REGARDLNG THE AUTHOR- 
ITY OF THE MASTER OF THE REVELS 
OVER PLAY-MAKERS, PLAYS AND 
PLAYERS IN 1581 

I send for insertion in the next volume "of ' ' The Shakes- 
peare Society's Papers" what I am entitled to call one 
of the most curious documents connected with the history 
of our stage, only two or three years before our great 
dramatist became a writer for and an actor upon it. 
Moreover, it is quite a novelty, no hint for its existence 
being anywhere given. It was communicated to me by 
Mr. Palmer, of the Rolls' Chapel, a short time since, as 
being on the patent rolP and as unknown to Mr. Payne 
Collier when he published his ''History of English Dra- 
loatic Poetry and the Stage," in 1831. 

It is entitled Commissio specialis pro Edo. Tylney, Ar. 
Magistro Revellorum, and it will be recollected that Ed- 
mund Tylney had been appointed Master of the Revels in 
July, 1579; the document before me bears date 24th De- 
cember, in the 24th year of Elizabeth; i. e., the day before 
Christmas, 1581, for the 24th year of her reign did not 
end until 16th November, 1582. Tylney had therefore 
been only a short time in office when he was entrusted 

•The Shakespeare Soeietij Paper, Vol. III. p. 1, 1847. 
^Rot. Paten, de diversis aniiis tempore R. Elizabeth. 

377 



with the extraordinary powers communicated to him by 
tins patent. 

It will be remarked also that it preceded the formation 
of the company of "the Queen's Players," which Howes^ 
if! his continuation of Stow's Annals, informs us con- 
sisted of twelve performers, including Eobert Wilson 
and Richard Tarlton. Sir Francis Walsingham is said 
to have been instrumental in the selection of the actors ; 
and we know, on the authority of the Accounts of the 
Expenses of the Revels, that Tylney was sent for by 
"Mr. Secretary" on 10th March, 1582, "to chuse out a 
company of Players for her Majesty." 

That this important theatrical event was contemplated 
when the subjoined instrument was placed in the hands 
of Tylney, we need have little doubt : it must, in fact, have 
been preparatory to it ; and anything more arbitrary, or, 
as we should now call it, unconstitutional, was perhaps 
never heard of. It seems framed in some degree upon 
the model of the unrestricted powers, at much earlier 
dates, given to the Master of the Children of the Chapel, 
&c., to take boys from the choirs of any cathedrals or 
churches, in order that they might be employed in the 
Chapel Royal. Tylney warrant, however, does not apply 
to mere singing boys, but to grown men, artificers, actors, 
and dramatists ; and, as will be seen, it is much larger and 
rQore imperative in the authority it conveys. 

For the purposes of the Revels at Court for the amuse- 
ment of the Queen, it enables Tylney, or his deputy, in 
the first place to command the services of any painters, 
embroiderers, tailors, property-makers, &c., he thought 
fit, and, in case of refusal or neglect, to commit them dur- 
ing his pleasure "without bail or mainprise"; so that 
they had no remedy but to submit. But the most remark- 
able part of the Patent comes afterwards where the same 



unprecedented power is given to Tylney, or his deputy,, 
to order all players of comedies, tragedies, or interludes, 
"with their playmakers," to come before him to recite 
such performances as they were in a condition to repre- 
sent. Thus actors and poets were put as much at the 
mercy of Tylney and his deputy as the commonest work- 
men he employed ; for, if they did not obey his orders, he 
was to commit them, or any of them, "without bail or 
main-prize," for an indefinite period, either to enforce 
compliance, or to punish them for being refractory in the 
execution of his commands. 

Connected with this duty was a power conveyed to 
Tylney, at his discretion, to reform, or entirely suppress, 
any of the "playing places" the actors were in the habit 
of employing for their exhibitions. Nothing therefore 
can be more unqualified than the authority given to the 
Master of the Revels, or his deputy, in all matters relat- 
ing to the drama and stage in the middle of the reign of 
Elizabeth. The Patent itself is in these terms, the only 
difference being that I have printed it in words at length,, 
avoiding legal abbreviations, and that I have divided intO' 
separate paragraphs, according to the subjects treated, 
what in the original is in one unbroken mass. 

THOMAS EDLYNE TOMLINS. 

Islington, 9th April, 1847. 

"ELIZABETH BY THE GEACE OF GOD, &C. TO 
ALL MANNER OUR JUSTICES, MAIORS, 
SHERIFFES, BAYLIFFES, CONSTABLES, AND 
ALL OTHER OUR OFFICERS, MINISTERS, 
TRUE LIEGE MEN AND SUBJECTS, AND TO^ 
EVERY OF THEM GREETINGE. 
"We lett you witt, that AVe have authorized licensed 

and commanded, and by these presentes do authorise^ 

379 



Jicence- and commaunde our Welbeloved Edmiinde Tyl- 
ney Esquire, Maister of our Re veils, as well to take and 
retaine for us and in our Name at all tymes from liens- 
forth, and in all places within this our Eealme of Eng- 
land, as well within Francheses and Liberties as without, 
at competent Wages, aswell all suche and as many Paint- 
ers, Imhroderers, Taylors, Cappers, Haberdashers, Joyn- 
ers, Carvers, Glasiers, Armorers, Basketmakers, Skin- 
ners, Sadlers, Waggen Makers, Plaisterers, Fethermak- 
ers, as all other Propertie makers and conninge Artificers 
and Laborers whatsoever, as our said Servant or his 
assigne, bearers hereof, shall thinke necessaire and requi- 
site for the speedie workinge and fynisheinge of any 
exploite, workmanshippe, or peece of service that shall 
at any tyme hereafter belonge to our saide office of the 
Revells, as also to take at price reasonable, in all places 
within our said Eealme of England, as well within Fran- 
cheses and Liberties as without, any kinde or kindes of 
stuffe. Ware, or Merchandise, Woode, or Coale, or other 
Fewell, Tymber, Wainscott, Boarde, Lathe, Nailes, 
Bricke, Tile, Leade, Iron, Wier, and all other necessaries 
for our said workes of the said office of our Revells, as 
he the said Edmunde or his assigne shall thinke behoofe- 
full and expedient from tyme to tyme for our said service 
in the said office of the Revells. Together with all car- 
j'iages for the same, both by Land and by Water, as the 
case shall require. 

''And furthermore, we have by these presents author- 
ised and commaunded the said Edmunde Tylney, that in 
case any person or persons, whatsoever they be, will 
obstinately disobey and refuse from hensforth to accom- 
I)lishe and obey our commaundement and pleasure in 
that behalfe, or withdrawe themselves from any of our 
said Workes, upon warninge to them or any of them 



giuen by tlie saide Edmunde Tylney, or by his sufficient 
Deputie in that behalfe to be named, appointed for their 
diligent attendance and workmanship upon the said 
workes or devises, as to their natural! dutie and allei- 
geance apperteineth, that then it shalbe lawful! unto the 
same Edmund Tilney, or his Deputie for the tyme beinge, 
to attache the partie or parties so otfendinge, and him or 
them to commyt to warde, there to remaine, without baile 
or maineprise, until such tyme as the saide Edmunde, or 
his Deputie, shall thinke the tyme of his or their impris- 
onment to be punishment sufficient for his or their saide 
offence in that behalfe ; and that done, to enlarge him or 
them, so beinge imprisoned, at their full Libertie, with- 
out any Losse, Penaltie, Forfaiture, or other damage in 
that behalfe to be susteined or borne by the saide Ed- 
munde Tilney, or his said Deputie. 

''And also, if any person or persons, beinge taken into 
our said workes of the said office of our Revells, beinge 
arrested, comminge or goinge to or from our saide 
Workes of our said office of our Revells, at the sute of 
any person or persons, then the said Edminde Tilney, 
by vertue and authoritie thereof, to enlarge him or them, 
as by our special! protection, duringe the tyme of our 
said workes. 

"And also, if any person or persons, beinge reteyned 
in our said worlvs of our said office of Revells, have taken 
any manner of taske worke, beinge bounde to finishe the 
same by a certen day, shall not runne into any manner of 
forfeiture or penaltie for breakinge of his day, so that 
he or they, ymmediately after the fynishinge of our said 
workes, indevor him or themselves to fynishe the saide 
taske worke. 

"And furthermore, also, we have and doe by these 
presents authorise and commaunde our said Servant, 

181 



F.dmiincle Tilney, Maister of our said Eevells, by liim- 
selfe or his sufficient Deputie or Deputies, to warne, com- 
niaunde, and appointe, in all places within this our 
Eealme of England, as well within Francheses and Liber- 
ties as without, all and every plaier or plaiers, with their 
playmakers, either belonginge to any Noble Man, or 
otherwise, bearinge the Name or Names of usinge the 
Facultie of Playmakers, or Plaiers of Comedies, Trage- 
dies, Enterludes, or what other Showes soever, from tyme 
to tyme, and at all tymes, to appeare before him, with all 
suche Plaies, Tragedies, Comedies, or Showes as they 
shall have in readines, or meane to sett forth, and them to 
presente and recite before our said Servant, or his siffi- 
cient Deputie, whom wee ordeyne, appointe, and author- 
ise by these presentes of all suche Showes, Plaies, Plaiers^ 
and Playmakers, together with their playinge places, to 
order and reforme, auctorise and put downe, as shalbe 
thought meete or unmeete unto himselfe, or his said 
Deputie, in that behalfe. 

**And also, likewise, we have by these presentes auth- 
orised and eommaunded the said Edmunde Tylney, that 
in case if any of them, whatsoever they bee, will obsti- 
natelie refuse, upon warninge unto them given by the 
said Edmunde, or his sufficient Deputie, to accomplishe 
and obey our commaundement in this behalfe, then it 
shalbe lawful to the saide Edmunde, or his sufficient 
Deputie, to attache the partie or parties so offendinge, 
and him or them to commytt to Warde, to remayne, with- 
out bayle or mayneprise, untill suche tyme as the same 
Edmunde Tylney, or his sufficient Deputie, shall thinke 
the tyme of his or theire ymprisonment to be punishe- 
ment sufficient for his or their said otfence in that be- 
halfe; and that done, to enlarge him or them so beinge 
imprisoned at their plaine Libertie, without any losse^ 

1S2 



penaltie, forfeiture, or other Daunger in this belialfe to 
be susteyned or borne by the said Edmunde Tyhiey, or 
his Deputie, any Acte, Statute, Ordinance, or Provision 
heretofore had or made, to the contrarie hereof in any 
wise notwithstanding. 

''AVherefore we Avill and commaunde you, and every 
-of you, that unto the said Edmunde Tylney, or his suffi- 
cient Deputie, bearer hereof, in the due execution of this 
our authoritie and comaundement ye be aydinge, sup- 
portinge, and assistinge from tyme to tyme, as the case 
shall require, as you and every of you tender our pleas- 
ure, and will answer to the contrarie at your uttermost 
i:)erills. In Witnesse whereof, &c., Witnes our selfe at 
AVestm. the xxiiijth day of December, in the xxiiijth yere 
of our Eaigne. 

Per Bre. de Privato Sigillo. 



183 



APPENDIX C. 

The following list shows some of the lands owned by the 
Cooke's, lords of Hartshill, and also Inscriptions in the 
Church of Ansley adjoining, from BavtleiVs ManduC'SScdn in 
Romanorum. 

One messuage and one cottage, wherein Thomas Ilewet 
dwelt, and Littlefield, Nurselfield, divided into two parts, 
Ferney croft, Johns croft, the Leyes, Broom close, the 
Paddoks, Aldermore, three closes called Eideings, the 
herbage and weeding of Hasellmore and Hillmore. 

AYilliam Migh the younger, 1 messuage, 1 croft. Cinder 
hill, the Middlefleld or Cornfield divided, the Newes, the 
Nether meadow, the Furmoore meadow, the Leys, the 
Ridmore, and the Furmoore, and the herbage and weed- 
ing of a spring wood called the Moore. 

Thomas Holt, a grist milne, a garden and orchard, 
the miln dam, and the stream fishing, the miln holm, 
the hither home, and the farther home. 

John Ward, 1 messuage, 1 little croft, the AYallnut 
yard, the Town croft, the Nine Lands, the Wardshill as 
divided, the Pinfold croft, and the Mill lane end. 

Edmund Harris, 1 messuage, the Town croft, the Hall 
croft, or Tophills, the Pinfold croft, the Mill lane end, 
and the Pittle or Pingle. 

Ralph Parker, the Marlepit flat, a Pingle in the Moore 
meadow, the weedings of two orchards, the Moore corner, 
the Moore belonging to the Brent house, the Moore 
meadow, a Moore with the privilege of pasturing called 
Ground ]Moore meadow, with the dor wast, and green 
goods, Yard End an orchard near the Hollows the new 
taken in in two parts. 

Henry Stanley, its hay, one garden, one yard, the Rails 

184 



flat, Alcots flat or 12 lands, the Wardell, the Hemp yard, 
the Sope meadow. 

William Remington, one messuage, one garden, one 
orchard, the Pinfold croft, the great Wardell, the Lease, 
the Moore, the Caldwell as it is divided, the Webland 
least, the Webland, Eaton lane end, and the Slade 
meadow. 

R. Remington, one cottage, one garden, the Wardell, 
the Wardell croft, the Hill close, the Bullmear meadow, 
one piece of meadow in Slade meadow, the herbage and 
weedings in Allen's moore. 

John Wood, one messuage, one orchard, one work- 
house, one stable, one garden and orchard, the Yard's end 
close. 

John Alcok vel Alcot, one messuage, one orchard, one 
garden, one pasture called the Yard, the Hillfield, the 
Woolvey Oakfield, the Conygree, Eatonlane end, the 
]Moor meadow. 

Joyce Parker, one messuage, one orchard, one garden, 
one little orchard, and oxhouse yew, one close called the 
Yard, the Town croft, the Nine Lands. 

One cottage and backside, the Six Lands. One cot- 
tage and backside called Pinfold croft. One little 
meadow, half Gunne meadow, the new taken in, the Ryde- 
ing, the Barn yard. 

Robert Burbage, one messuage, one barn, one garden, 
one orchard, one little yard, the Yard's end croft, the 
Slade close, and one piece of meadow, the Dearefbank, 
Burbridge's Moore meadow, the herbage and weeding of 
Burbridge's Moore wood. 

William Mights, one messuage, one stable, one garden, 
one orchard, the Hoggs Eyon divided, the Falls being 
two closes, the great Wardell, the upper Wardell, and 
nether Wardell, the Bednells, the Broom close, the 
Pyngie, the Moore meadow. Might's ^loore, half the 
Gun meadow. 

. 185 



Alexander Weston, one messuage, one stable, one gar- 
den, one barn, one orchard, the Jumbell Flatt or Mill- 
lane end, one piece of arable land called the Voxhill 
close, the house and croft, Weston's key corner in two 
pieces, Weston's Slade mill, the Hookes, the Heath, the 
nether Slade, the herbage and weedings of Weston's 
Moore. 

Richard Dentley, one cottage, one garden called the 
Chappell. 

Thomas Holt, one messuage called Wolbey houst, one 
barne, one stable yard and orchard, one croft and 
barn, Wolvey field, the Barkers be two several fields, 
three tostes called the Newso, the nether mead some- 
time parcel of Barkers, the middle mead, the Pingle, and 
the Sweet Moore. 

Inscriptions in the Church.* 

5. At the bottom of the church :** 

"Hie jacet Francicus Bacon, 

Sacr?e Theologia3 

Professor, 

Eccl. Lichfeld 

Pr?ebendarius, 

Hujus Eccl. Vicar. 

Obiit an. Dom. 

MDCLXXXII. 

annoque set LXXXIV." 

Saint John Twycross, heretofore vicar of Ansley (prior 
to the year 1606) gave 20 marks to be laid out in the 
purchase of land, the yearly produce of which was to be 
expended as follows: one moiety or half part to be dis- 

*Notc — Of these inscriptions Xos. 1 and 2 were in Dug- 
dale's edition If 1650; 3, 4, 6, were added by Dr. Thomas; 
the others by Mr. Bartlett. 

**Xote — This epitaph is entirely gone, stone and all. 
186 



tributed amongst the poor of Ansley yearly, by the trus- 
tees, Avithin eight days of Christmas or Easter ; the other 
moiety in amending and repairing the highways most 
needful to be repaired; which sum being encreased by the 
parish to £17 was laid out in the purchase of an es- 
tate, now rented at £10 per ami. 

Shakespeare also bequeathed the sum of £3 at what time 
is unknown : the interest to be given yearly to the poor of 
Ansley in bread. 

The sum of 6s. 8d. yearly was also charged upon a 
small cottage and croft, late in the occupation of George 
Izon, to find bell-ropes for the church-bells ; but by whom 
is not now known; which cottage and croft, about 1765, 
was purchased of the parish by the late John Ludford, 
Esq., for £30; which, together with Shakespear's and 
Oughtou's gifts, as above mentioned, was expended in 
rebuilding the poors' houses, and the income is now paid 
by the overseers to the poor. 

The trustees of all the above charities (except Mr. 
Stratford's) at the time of the donation returns were : 
John Ludford, Esq., John Barber, Thomas Cheshire, 
Richard Harrison, John Wagstaff, John Johnson, Wil- 
liam Topp, Robert Harrison. 

ANSLEY CHURCH. 
Incumbentes, & tempora institutions. 

Elizabetha R. Angl. Robert Coope cler. XII Jul. 1561, 
(V. p. r.) H. Hondys) postea deprivatus. Thomas Arn- 
feild cler. XXVII Jul. 1574. Rob. Cope II Mart. 1575. 
Will. Foxe cler. XXII Dec. 1591. Jac. Bush cler. X. 
Junii, 1600. 

Rich. Chamberlain, arm. Rex. Francis Bacon, A. M. 
XIII Sept. 1625. Francis Bacon, XIV Jan. 1638, ob. 
1682.* 

*N0TE. — In the parish register I find the following note : This book 
was returned by William Wilson late register of Ansley to me, Francis 
Bacon Vicar, of Ansley, April 24, 1661. This William Wilson had 
acted as register from the Act's taking place by which the late vicar 
was dispossessed. 

187 



No. 12. Extract from the oldest Register of Ansley. 

"Compositionem banc ideo hie inserui quia scriptum 
chartaceum (quod liabui solum) segre potuit ad posteri- 
tatem dedi. F. Bacon, V. Anslei, 1(345." 

Thomas Shakespear was one of the church wardens 
in 1633. The same who bequeathed £3 yearly to the 
l^oor of Ansley. B. B. 

No. 13. Extract from the oldest Register of Ansley, on 
the back of the leaf where the Composition is transcribed. 

These records were searche out, and heare inserted 
the like occasion shall hereafter happen; for the yearly 
pencon, with all the arrears, were by Mr. Robinson, re- 
ceiver of the tenths, demanded as payable by the church- 
wardens of Ansley, being mistaken for Ansley, or 
Alvesley. Francis Bacon, Yic'lbm, March 9, 1649. 



1S8 



Gefta Grayorum: 

OR, THE 

HISTORY 

Of the High and mighty PRINCE, 

HEN RY 

Prince of Purpoole, Arch-Dbkc of Stapulia and 
Bernardia, Dukeof HigKand Nether Holbom, 
Marquis of. St. Giles and Tottcnhano, Count 
Palatine of Bloomsburyand Cterken well. Great 
Lord of the Cantons of Iflington, KentilH- 
Town , Paddington and Knighis-bridgc , 
Knight of the moft Heroical Order of the 
Helmet, and Sovereign of the Same ; 

Who Reigned and Died, J.T>. i 594.. 

TOGETHER WITH 

A Mafquc, as it was prefented (by His Highncfs's Com- 
mand) for the Entertainment of Qj, ELIZABETH; 
who , with the Nobks of both Courts, was prcfent 
tjiercat. 



LONDON, Printed for W. Canning, at his Shop in 

the Tcmpl^CIoyfters^. MDCLXXXVUL 

Vticcy one Shilling. 



To The Most Honourable 
Matthew Smyth, Esq. 
Comptroller 
Of The 
Honourable Society 
Of The 
Inner Temple 
Sir, 

The State of Purpoole (so long obscured in 
itself) could no otherwise express its Grandeur, 
but by shewing to Posterity what it was: This 
moved those ingenious Gentlemen to leave to 
succeeding Times the Memory of those Actions, 
which they themselves had done ; not for the vain 
Air of Popularity, but generously to give an 
Example, which others might desire to follow. 

According they have by this History, set forth 
their Actions, which seem to be writ with the 
same Gallentry of Spirit as they were done. 

The Language itself is all that Age could 
afford; which allowing something for the 
Modern Dress and Words in Fashion, is not 
beneath any we have now: It was for that Rea- 
son thought necessary. 



THE EPISTOLE DEDICATORY. 

Not to clip anything; which, though it may seem 
odd, yet naturally begets a Veneration, upon 
Account of its Antiquity. 

What more could they have wished, than to have 
found a Patron, worthy the protecting the 
Memory of such a Prince? And what more 
than they requiring than the Safety of your 
Patronage. 

It was Fortune, undoubtedly, that reserved it 
for this happy Opportunity of coming forth 
under your Protection. 

That first Alliance, which ever was betwixt 
your States seems to ask it of you, as the only 
Person in whom are revived the ancient Honours 
of both Houses. It was certainly a public Sence 
of the same personal Abilities (which made that 
Prince so conspicuous) that gives us all a pub- 
lic View of those Virtues, so much admired in 
private. 

Sir, 'tis for these Reasons humbly offered to 
you, presuming upon favourable Acceptance of 
that which naturally falls under your Care. 

May Time perfect the Character, already so well 
begun, that Posterity may bear you equal, if not 
greater than the Prince of Purpoole. 
I am, Sir, 
Your Honour's 
Most Obedient Servant, 

V^. C. ' 



GESTA GRAYORUM, 

OR, 

THE HISTORY OF THE HIGH AND MIGHTY 
PRINCE HENRY, 

Prince of PUEPOOLE, Arch Duke of STAPULIA and 
BERNARDIA, Duke of HIGH and NETHER HOL- 
BORN, Marquis of ST. GILES and TOTTENHAM, 
Count Palatine of BLOOMSBURY and CLERKEN- 
WELL, Great Lord of the Cantons of ISLING- 
TON, KENTISH TOWN, PADDINGTON, and 
KNIGHTS-BRIDGE of the Most Heroical Order of 

; the HELMET, and Sovereign of the same: who 
reigned and died A. D. 1594. — Together with a 
Masque, as it was presented (by his Highnesses com- 
mand) for the Entertainment of Q. ELIZABETH, 
who, with the Nobles of both Courts, was present 
thereat. In two Parts. ^ 

The great number of gallant Gentlemen that Gray's 
Inn afforded at Ordinary Revels, betwixt All-Hollantide 
and Christmas, exceeding therein the rest of the Houses 
of Court, gave occasion to some well-wishers of our 
sports, and favourers of our credit, to wish an head 
answerable to so noble a body, and a leader to so gallant 
a company: which motion was more willingly hearkened 

* The first part of this tract was printed in 1688 for W. Canning, at his shop in 
the Temple Cloysters. The publisher was Mr. Henry Keepe, who published the Monu- 
ments of Westminster. The second part was first published in the former edition of 
these Progresses from a MS. then in the editor's possession, and afterwards given to 
Mr. Gough. 



unto, in regard that such pass-times had been intermitted 
by the space of three or four years, by reason of sick- 
ness and discontinuances. 

After many consultations had hereupon by the youths 
and others that were most forward herein, at length, 
about the 12th of December, with the consent and assist- 
ance of the Readers and xlncients, it was determined, 
that there should be elected a Prince of Purpoole, to gov- 
ern our state for the time ; which was intended to be for 
the credit of Gray's Inn, and rather to be performed by 
witty inventions than chargeable expences. 

Whereupon, they presently made choice of one Mr. 
Henry Holmes, a Norfolk gentleman, who was thought to 
be accomplished with all good parts, fit for so great a 
dignity; and was also a very proper man of personage, 
and very active in dancing and revelling. 

Then was his Privy Council assigned him, to advise of 
state-matters, and the government of his dominions : his 
lodging also was provided according to state ; as the Pres- 
ence Chamber, and the Council Chamber. Also all Officers 
of State, of the Law, and of the Household. There were 
also appointed Gentlemen Pensioners to attend on his 
person, and a guard, with their Captain, for his defence. 

The next thing thought upon, as most necessary, was, 
provision of Treasure, for the support of his state and 
dignity. To this purpose, there was granted a benevo- 
lence by those that were then in his Court abiding: and 
for those that were not in the House, there were letters 
directed to them, in nature of Privy Seals, to enjoin them, 
not only to be present, and give their attendance at his 
Court ; but also, that they should contribute to the defray- 
ing of so great a charge, as was guessed to be requisite 
for the performance of so great intendments. 



The Form of the Privy Seals directed to the foreigners, 
upon occasion as is aforesaid : 

"Your friends of the Society of Gray's Inn now resid- 
ing there, have thought good to elect a Prince, to govern 
the state of the Signiory, now by discontinuance much 
impaired in the ancient honour where in it hath excelled 
all other of like dignity. These are therefore, in thei 
name of the said Prince, to require you forthwith to re- 
sort to the Court there holden, to assist the proceedings 
with your person ; and withal, upon the receipt hereof, to 
make contribution of such benevolence as may express 
your good affection to the State, and be answerable to 
your quality. We have appointed our well-beloved 
Edward Jones our foreign collector, who shall attend you 
by himself, or by his deputy. 

Dated at our Court at Graya, Your loving friend, 
the 13th of December, 1594. GRAY 'S-INN. ' ' 

If, upon receipt of these letters, they returned answer 
again, that they would be present in person at our sports, 
as divers did, not taking notice of the further meaning 
therein expressed, they were, served with an alias, as 
f olloweth : 

"To our trusty and well-beloved W. B. at L. give these. 

"Whereas, upon our former letters to you, which re- 
quired your personal appearance and contribution, you 
have returned us answer that you will be present, with- 
out satisfying the residue of the contents for the benevo- 
lence : these are therefore to will and require you, forth- 
with, upon the receipt hereof, to send for your part, such 
supply by this bearer, as to you, for the defraying so 
great a charge, shall seem convenient: and herein you 

7 



shall perform a duty to the House, and avoid that ill 
opinion which some ungentlemanly spirits have pur- 
chased by their uncivil answers to our letters directed 
to them, whose demeanor shall be laid to their charge 
when time serveth ; and in the mean time, order shall be 
taken, that their names and defaults shall be proclaimed 
in our publick assemblies, to their greate discredit, &c. 

Your loving friend, GRAY'S-INN." 



By this means the Prince's treasure was well in- 
creased ; as also by the great bounty of divers honourable 
favourers of our state, that imparted their liberality, to 
the setting forward of our intended pass-times. Amongst 
the rest, the Right Honourable Sir AYilliam Cecill^ 
Knight, Lord Treasurer of England, being of our So- 
ciety, deserved honourable rememberance, for his liberal 
and noble mindfulness of us, and our State; who, unde- 
sired, sent to the Prince, as a token of his Lordship's 
favour, £10, and a purse of fine rich needle-work. 

When all these things sorted so well to our desires^ 
and that there was good hope of effecting that that was 
taken in hand, there was dispatched from our State a 
messenger to our ancient allied friend the Inner Temple, 
that they might be acquainted with our proceedings, and 
also to be invited to participate of our honour ; which to 
them was most acceptable, as by the process of their let- 
ters and ours, mutually sent, may appear. 



The Copies of the Letters that passed betwixt the two- 
most flourishing Estates 

of the Grayans Templarians. 

**To the most Honourable and Prudent, the Governors^ 
Assistants, and Society 

of the Inner Temple. 

''Most Grave and Noble, 

''We have, upon good consideration, made choice of 
a Prince, to be predominant in our State of Purpoole,. 
for some important causes that require an head, or leader : 
and as we have ever had great cause, by the warrant of 
experience, to assure ourselves of your unfeigned love 
and amity, so we are, upon this occasion, and in the 
name of our Prince elect, to pray you, that it may con- 
tinue; and in demonstration thereof, that you will be 
pleased to assist us with your counsel, in the person of 
an Ambassador, that may be resident here amongst us, 
and be a minister of correspondence between us, and to- 
advise of such affairs, as the effects whereof, we hope, 
shall sort to the benefit of both our estates. And so, being-^ 
ready to requite you with all good offices, we leave you 
to the protection of the Almighty. 

"Your most loving friend and ally, 

"GRAY'S-INN. 
"Dated at our Court of Graya, this 14th of 
December, 1594. " 



"To the most Honourable State of the Gray cms. 

"Eight Honourable, and most firmly United, 

"If our deserts were any way answerable to the great 
expectation of your good proceedings, we might with more 
boldness accomplish the request of your kind letters, 
whereby it pleaseth you to interest us in the honour of 
your actions; which we cannot but acknowledge for a 
great courtesie and kindness (a thing proper to you, in 
all your courses and endeavours), and repute it a great 
honour intended towards ourselves: in respect whereof 
we yield with all good will, to that which your honourable 
letters import; as your kindness, and the bond of our 
ancient amity and league, requireth and deserveth. Your 
assured friend, The State of Templaria." 

"From Templaria, the 18th of 
December, 1594. 



The Order of the Prince of Pnrpoole's Proceedings, with 
his Officers and Attendants, at his honourable Inthroni- 
zation; which was likewise observed in all his Solemn 
Marches on Grands Days, and like occasions ; which place 
every Officer did duly attend, during the Reign of His 
Highness 's Government. 

A Marshal. A Marshal. 

Trumpets. Trumpets. 

Pursuevant at Arms, Layne. 

Townsmen in the Prince's Yeomen of the Guard, three 
Livery, with halberts. couples. 

10 



Captain of the Guard, Grimes. 
Baron of the Grand Port, Baron of the Petty Port, 



Dudley. 

Baron of the Base Port, 
Grante. 

Gentlemen for Entertain- 
ment, three couples. 
Binge, &c. 



Williams. 

Baron of the New Port, 
Lou el. 

Gentlemen for Entertain- 
ment, three couples, 
WentwortJi, Zukendeu, 
Forrest. 



Lieutenant of the Pensioners, Tonstal. 
Gentlemen Pensioners, twelve couples, viz- 
Laivson. Rotts. Davison. 

Devereux. Anderson. 

Stapleton. Glascott. cum reliquis. 

Daniel. Elken. 

Chief Ranger, and Master of the Game, Forrest. 



Master of the Eevels, Lam- 
bert. 

Master of the Revellers, 
T every. 

Captain of the Pensioners, 
CooJce. 

Sewer, Archer. 

Carver, Moseley. 
Another Sewer, Dreivry. 
Cup-bearer, Painter. 
Groom Porter, Bennet. 
Sheriff, Leach. 



Lord Chief Justice of the 
Prince's Bench, Crew. 

Master of the Ordnance, 
Fitz-Williams. 

Lieutenant of the Tower, 
Lloyd. 

Master of the Jewel-house, 
Darlen. 

Treasurer of the House- 
hold, Smith. 

Knight Marshal, Bell. 

Master of the Wardrobe, 
Conney. 

Comptroller of the House- 
hold, Bouthe. 



11 



Clerk of the Council, Jones. 

Clerk of the Parliament. 

Clerk of the Crown, 
Doivnes. 

Orator, Heke. 

Recorder, Starkey. 

Solicitor, Dunne. 

Serjeant, Goldsmith. 

Speaker of the Parliament, 
Bellen. 

Commissary, Greenwood. 

Attorney, Holt. 

Serjeant, Hitchcombe. 

Master of the Requests, 
Faldo. 

Chancellor of the Exche- 
quer, Kitts 

Master of the Wards and 
Idiots, Ellis. 

Reader, Cobb. 

Lord Chief Baron of the 
Exchequer, Briggs. 

Master of the Rolls, Hetlen. 

Lord Chief Baron of the 
Common Fleas, Dam- 
port e. 

The Shield of Pegasus, for 
the Inner Temple, Sce- 
. vington. 

Serjeant at Arms with the 
, Sword, Glascatt. 

Gentleman Usher, Paylor. 



Bishop of St. Giles in the 

Fields, Dandye. 
Steward of the Household, 

Smith. 
Lord Warden of the Four 

Ports, Damporte. 
Secretary of State, Jones. 
Lord Admiral, Cecill (Rich- 
ard). 
Lord Treasurer, Morrey. 
Lord Great Chamberlain, 

Southworth. 
Lord High Constable. 
Lord Marshal, Knaplock. 
Lord Privy Seal, Lamphetv. 
Lord Chamberlain of the 

Household, Markham. 
Lord High Steward, 

Kempe. 
Lord Chancellor, Johnson. 
Archbishop of St. Andrew's 

in Holborn, Bush. 
Serjeant at Arms with the 

Mace, Flemming. 
Gentleman Usher, Chevett. 
The Prince of Purpoole, 

Helmes. 
A Page of Honour, Wann- 

forde. 
Gentlemen of the Privy 

Chamber, six couples. 
A Page of Honour, Butler 

( Roger). 



12 



The Shield of the Griffin, Vice - Chamberlain, Butler 
for Gray's-Inn, Wickliffe. {Thomas). 

Master of the Horse, Fitz- 

Hugh. 
Yeomen of the Guards, 
The Great Shield of the three couples. 



The King at Arms, Per kin 
son. 



Prince's Arms, CoUey. Townsmen in Liveries. 
The Family and Followers. 



Upon the 20th day of December, being St. Thomas's 
Eve, the Prince, with all his train in order, as above 
set down, marched from his lodging to the Great Hall: 
and there took his place in his throne, under a rich cloth 
of state: his Counsellors and great Lords were placed 
about him ; and before him, below the half e pace, at a 
table, sate his learned Council and Lawyers ; the rest of 
the officers and attendants took their proper place, as 
belonged to their condition. 

Then the Trumpets were commanded to sound thrice; 
which being done, the King at Arms, in his rich surcoat 
of arms, stood forth before the Prince, and proclaimed 
his style, as folio weth: 

''By the sacred laws of arms, and authorized cer- 
monies of the same (maugre the conceit of any malecon- 
tent) I do pronounce my Sovereign Liege Lord Sir Henry, 
rightfully to be the high and mighty Prince of Purpoole, 
Archduke of Stapulia and Bernardia, Duke of the High 
and Nether Holhorn, Marquis of St. Giles's and Totten- 
ham, Count Palatine of Bloomshiiry and Clerkenwell, 
Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington, &c. Knight of 
the most honourable Order of the Helmet, and Sovereign 
of the same." 

13 



After that the King at Arms had thus proclaimed his 
style, the trumpets sounded again, and then entered the 
Prince's Champion, all in compleat armour, on horse- 
back, and so came riding round about the fire ; and in the 
midst of the hall stayed, and made his challenge, in these 
words following: 

*'If there be any man, of high degree or low, that will 
say that my Sovereign is not rightly Prince of Purpoole^ 
as by his King at Arms right-now hath been proclaimed^ 
I am ready here to maintain, that he lieth as a false 
traitor; and I do challenge in combat, to fight with him^ 
either now, or at any time or place appointed: and in 
token hereof I gage my gauntlet, as the Prince's true 
Knight, and his Champion." 

"When the Champion had thus made his challenge, he 
departed. Then the trumpets were commanded to sounds 
and the King at Arms blazoned the Prince his Highness 's 
arms, as followeth: 

"The most mighty Prince of Purpoole, Sc, beareth his 
shield of the highest Jupiter. In point, a sacred imperial 
diadem, safely guarded by the helmet of the great god- 
dess Pallas, from the violence of darts, bullets, and bolts 
of Saturn, Momus, and the Idiot; all environed with the 
ribband of loyalty, having a pendant of the most heroical 
Order of Knighthood of the Helmet; the word hereunto, 
Sic virtus honor em,. For his Highness 's crest the glor- 
ious planet Sol, coursing through twelve signs of the Zo- 
diack, on a celestial globe, moved upon two poles Arctick 
and Antartick; with this motto, Dum totum peregraverit 
orbem. All set upon a chapew: Mars turned up, Luna 
mantelled. Sapphire doubted pearl, supported by two 
anciently renowned and glorious Griffyns, which have 
been always in league with the honourable Pegasus." 

14 



The conceit hereof was to shew, that the Prince, whose 
private arms were three helmets, should defend his hon,- 
our by virtue, from reprehensions of male-contents, car- 
pers, and fools. The ribband of blue, with an helmet 
pendant, in imitation of St. George. In his crest, his 
government for the twelve days of Christmas was re- 
sembled to the Sun's passing the twelve signs, though 
the Prince's course had some odd degrees beyond that 
time; but he was wholly supported by the Griff yns; for 
Gray's Inn Gentlemen, and not the Treasure of the House, 
was charged. The words. Sic virtus honorem, that his 
virtue should defend his honour, whilst he had run his 
whole course of dominion, without any either eclipse or 
retrogradation. 

After these things thus done, the Attorney stood up, and 
made a Speech of gratulation to the Prince ; and therein 
shewed what great happiness was like to ensue, by the 
election of so noble and vertuous a Prince as then reigned 
over them; rightly extolling the nobility, vertue, puis- 
sance, and the singular perfections of his Sovereign; 
whereby he took occasion also to move the subjects to be 
forward to perform all obedience and service to his Ex- 
cellency; as also to furnish his wants, if so be that it 
were requisite; and, in a word, perswaded the people, 
that they were happy in having such a Prince to rule over 
them ; and likewise assured the Prince, that he also was 
most happy, in having rule over so dutiful and loving 
subjects, that would not think any thing, were it lands, 
goods, or life, too dear to be at his Highness 's command 
and service. 

The Prince's Highness made again this answer: ''That 
he did acknowledge himself to be deeply bound to their 
merits ; and in that regard did promise, that he would be 

15 



a gracious and loving Prince to so well deserving sub- 
jects." And concluded with good liking and commenda- 
tions of their proceedings. 

Then the Sollicitor, having certain great old books and 
records lying before him, made this Speech to his Hon- 
our, as f olloweth : 

''Most Excellent Prince, 

''High superiority and dominion is illustrated and 
adorned by the humble services of noble and mighty 
personages: and therefore, amidst the garland of your 
royalties of your crown, this is a principal flower, that 
in your provinces and territories, divers mighty and puis- 
sant potentates are your homagers and vassals; and, 
although infinite are your feodaries, which by their ten- 
ures do perform royal service to your sacred person, pay 
huge sums into your treasury and exchequer, and main- 
tain whole legions for the defence of your country: yet 
some special persons there are charged by their tenures, 
to do special service at this your glorious inthronization ; 
whose tenures, for their strangeness, are admirable ; for 
their value, inestimable: and for their worthiness, in- 
comparable; the particulars whereof do here appear in 
your Excellency's records, in the book of Doomsday, re- 
maining in your Exchequer, in the 50th and SOOtli chest 
there. ' ' 



The Names of Such Homagers and Tributaries as hold 
any Signiories, Lordships, Lands, Privileges, or Liberties, 
under his Honour, and the Tenures and Services belong- 
ing to the same, as f olloweth : 

Alfonso de StapuUa, and Davillo de Bernardia, hold 
the arch-dukedoms of Stapidia and Bernardia, of the 

16 



Prince of Purpoole, by grand-serjeantry, and castle- 
guard of the Castles of Stapiilia and Bernardia, and to 
right and relieve all wants and wrongs of all ladies, ma- 
trons, and maids, within the said arch-dutchy; and ren- 
dering, on the day of his Excellency's coronation, a 
coronet of gold, and yearly five hundred millions sterling. 

Marotto Marquarillo de Holboni holdeth the manors 
of High and Nether Holborn by cornage in capite of the 
Prince of Purpoole, and rendering on the day of his 
Honour's coronation, for every of the Prince's pensioners, 
one milk-white doe, to be bestowed on them by the Prince, 
for a favour, or New-year's-night-gift: and rendring 
yearly two hundred millions sterling. 

Lucy Negro, Abbess de Clerkenivell, holdeth the nun- 
nery of Clerkenivell, with the lands and privileges there- 
nnto belonging, of the Prince of Purpoole, by night-serv- 
ice in Cauda, and to find a choir of nuns, with burning 
lamps, to chaunt Placebo to the Gentlemen of the Prince's 
Privy Chamber, on the day of his Excellency's corona- 
tion. 

Rif-ffiano de St. Giles's holdeth the town of *S'^. Giles's 
by cornage in Cauda, of the Prince of Purpoole, and 
rendring on the day of his Excellency's coronation, two 
ambling, easie-paced gennets, for the Prince's two pages 
of honour; and rendring yearly two hundred millions 
sterling. 

Cornelius Combaldus de Tottemham, holdeth. the grange 
of Tottenham of the Prince of Purpoole, in free and com- 
mon soccage, by the twenty-fourth part of a night's fee 
and by rendring to the Master of the Wardrobe so much 
cunny furr as will serve to line his night-cap, and face 
a pair of mittins; and yielding yearly four quarters of 
rye, and threescore double duckets on the feast of St. 
Pancras. 

17 



BartJioloyneus de Bloomshury holdetli a thousand hides 
in Bloomshury, of the Prince of Purpoole, by escuage in- 
certain, and rendring on the day of his Excellency's 
coronation one Amazon, with a ring, to be run at by the 
Knights of the Prince's band, and the mark to be his 
trophy that shall be adjudged the bravest courser; and 
rendring yearly fifty millions sterling. 

Amarillo de Paddington holdeth an hundred ox-gangs 
of land in Paddington, of the Prince of Purpoole, by 
petty-serjeantry, that when the Prince maketh a voyage 
royal against the Amazons, to subdue and bring them 
under, he do find, at his own charges, a thousand men, well 
furnished with long and strong morris-pikes, black bills, 
or halberts, with morians on their heads; and rendring 
yearly four hundred millions sterling. 

Baivdtvine de Islington holdeth the town of Islington 
of the Prince of Purpoole, by grand-serjeantry ; and 
rendring, at the coronation of his Honour, for every 
maid in Islington, continuing a virgin after the age of 
fourteen years, one hundred thousand millions sterling. 

Jordano Sartano de Kentish Town holdeth the Canton 
of Kentish Town of the Prince of Purpoole, in tail-gen- 
eral, at the will of the said Prince, as of his mannor of 
Deep-Inn, in his province of Islington by the Veirge, 
according to the custom of the said mannor; that when 
any of the Prince's officers or family do resort thither, 
for change of air, or else variety of diet, as weary of 
court life, and such provision, he do provide for a mess 
of the Yeomen of the Guard, or any of the black-guard, 
or such like inferior officers so coming, eight loins of 
mutton, which are sound, well-fed, and not infectious; 
and for every Gentleman Pensioner, or other of good 
quality, coneys, pidgeons, chickens, or such dainty mor- 

18 



sels. But the said Jordmio is not bound by his tenure, 
to boil, roast, or bake the same, or meddle further than 
the bare delivery of the said cates, and so to leave them 
to the handling, dressing, and breaking up of themselves ; 
and rendring for a fine to the Prince one thousand five 
hundred marks. 

Markasius Rusticanus, and Hieronymus Paludensis de 
Knightsbridge, do hold the village of Knightsbridge, with 
the appurtenances in Knightsbridge, of the Prince of 
Purpoole, by villenage in base tenure, that they two shall 
jointly find three hundred able and sufficient labouring 
men, with instruments and tools necessary for the making 
clean of all channels, sinks, creeks, and gutters, within 
all the cities of his Highness 's dominions; and also shall 
cleanse and keep clean all and all manner of ponds, 
pudules, dams, springs, locks, runlets, becks, water gates, 
sluces, passages, strait entrances, and dangerous quag- 
mires; and also shall repair and mend all common high 
and low-ways, by laying stones in the pits and naughty 
places thereof : and also that they do not suffer the afore- 
said places to go to decay through their default, and lack 
of looking unto, or neglect of doing their parts and duties 
therein. 

The tenures being thus read by the Solicitor, then were 
called by their names those homagers that were to per- 
form their services, according to their tenures. 

Upon the summons given, Alphonso de Stapidia, and 
Davillo de Bernardia, came to the Prince's foot-stool, and 
offered a coronet, according to their service, and did 
homage to his Highness in solemn manner, kneeling, ac- 
cording to the order in such cases accustomed. The rest 
that appeared were deferred to better leisure; and they 
that made default were fined at great sums, and their 
defaults recorded. 

19 



There was a Parliament intended, and summoned ; but 
by reason that some special officers that were by neces- 
sary occasions urged to be absent, without whose presence 
it could not be performed, it was dashed. And in that 
point our purpose was frustrate, saving only in two 
branches of it: the one was a subsidy granted by the 
Commons of his dominions, towards the support of his 
Highness 's port and sports. The other was, by his 
gracious, general, and free pardon. 

HENRY Prince of Purpoole, Arch-Duke of Stapulia and 
Bernardia, Duke of High and Nether Holborn, Mar- 
quis of St. Giles's and Tottenham, Count Palatine 
of Bloomshury and Clerkenwell, Great Lord of the 
Cantons of Islington, Kentish Toivn, Paddington, and 
Knights -bridge, Knight of the most heroicall Order 
of the Helmet, and Sovereign of the same; to all 
and all manner of Persons to whome these Presents 
shall appertain ; Greeting — 

"In tender regard, and gracious consideration of the 
humble atf ection of our loyal lords and subjects ; and by 
understanding that by often violating of laudable cus- 
toms, prescriptions, and laws, divers have incurred in- 
evitable and incurable dangers of lands, goods, life, and 
members, if it be not by our clemency redressed, re- 
spected, and pardoned : We therefore, hoping for better 
obedience and observation of our said laws and customs, 
do grant and publish this our General and Free Pardon 
of all dangers, pains, penalties, forfeitures or offences, 
whereunto and wherewith they are now charged, or 
chargeable, by reason of mis-government, mis-demeanour, 
mis-behaviour, or fault, either of commission, omission, 
or otherwise howsoever or whatsover. 

"It is therefore Our will and pleasure, that all and 

20 



every public person and persons, whether they be 
strangers or naturals, within Our dominions, be by vir- 
tue hereof excused, suspended, and discharged from all 
and all manner of treasons, contempts, offences, tres- 
passes, forcible entries, intrusions, disseisins, torts, 
wrongs, injuries, over-throws, over-thwartings, cross- 
bitings, coney-catchings, frauds, conclusions, fictions, 
fractions, fashions, fancies, or ostentations: also all and 
all manner of errors, misprisions, mistakings, overtak- 
ings, double dealings, combinations, confederacies, con- 
junctions, oppositions, interpositions, suppositions, and 
suppositaries : also all and all manner of intermedlance 
or medlance, privy-searches, routs and riots, incom- 
brances, pluralities, formalities, deformalities, disturb- 
ances, duplicities, jeofails in insufficiencies or defects: 
also all and all manner of sorceries, inchantments, con- 
jurations, spells, or charms : all destruction, obstructions, 
and constructions: all evasions, invasions, charges, sur- 
charges, discharges, commands, countermands, checks, 
counterchecks, and counterbuffs : also all and all manner 
of inhibitions, prohibitions, insurrections, corrections, 
conspiracies, concavities, coinings, superfluities, wash- 
ings, clippings, and shavings : all and all manner of multi- 
plications, inanities, installations, destinations, constilla- 
tions, necromancies, and incantations : all and all manner 
of mis-feasance, non-feasance, or too much feasance : all 
attempts or adventures, skirmages, assaults, grapplings, 
closings, or encounters : all mis-prisonments, or restraints 
of body or member : and all and all manner of pains and 
penalties personal or pecuniary whatsoever, committed, 
made, or done, against our crown and dignity, peace, pre- 
rogatives, laws, and customs, which shall not herein here- 
after be in some sort expressed, mentioned, intended, or 
excepted. 

21 



''Except, and always fore-prized out of this General 
and Free Pardon, all and every such person and persons 
as shall imagine, think, suppose, or speak and utter any 
false, seditious ignominious, or slanderous words, reports, 
rumours, or opinions, against the dignity, or his Excel- 
lency's honourable actions, counsels, consultations, or 
state of the Prince, his court, counsellors, nobles, knights, 
and officers. 

"Except, all such persons as now or hereafter shall be 
advanced, admitted, or induced to any corporal or per- 
sonal ])enefice, administration, charge, or cure, of any 
manner of personage, and shall not be personally resident, 
commorant, or incumbent in, at, or upon the whole, or 
some part or parcel of the said benefice, administration, 
or cure ; but absent himself wilfully or negligentlyj by the 
space of four-score days, nights, or hours, and not hav- 
ing any special substituted, instituted, or inducted Vicar, 
incumbant, or concumbent, daily, or any other time, duly 
to express, enjoy, and supply his absence, room, or vaca- 
tion. 

''Except, all such persons as have, or shall have any 
charge, occasion, chance, opportunity, or possible means 
to entertain, serve, recreate, delight, or discourse, with 
any vertuous or honourable lady, or gentlewoman, matron, 
or maid, publicly, privately, or familiarly, and shall faint, 
fail, or be deemed to faint or fail in courage, or counten- 
ance, semblance, gesture, voice, speech, or attempt, or in 
act or adventure, or in any other matter, thing, manner, 
mystery, or accomplishment, due, decent, or appertinent 
to her or their honour, diginity, desert, expectation, de- 
sire, affection, inclination, allowance, or acceptance; to 
be daunted, dismayed, or to stand mute, idle, frivolous 
or defective, or otherwise dull, contrary, sullen, mal-con- 
tent, melancholy, or different from the profession, prac- 

22 



tice, and perfection, of a compleat and consummate gen- 
tleman or courtier. 

"Except, all such persons as by any force, or fraud, 
and dissimulation, shall procure, be it by letters, prom- 
ises, messages, contracts, and other inveaglings, any lady 
or gentlewoman, woman or maid, sole or covert, into his 
possession or convoy, and shall convey her into any place 
where she is or shall be of full power and opportunity to 
bargain, give, take, buy, sell, or change ; and shall suffer 
her to escape and return at large, without any such bar- 
gain, sale, gift, or exchange performed and made, con- 
trary to former expected, expressed, employed contract 
or consent. 

^^ Except, all such persons as by any slander, libel, 
word, or note, bewray, betray, defame, or suffer to be 
defamed, any woman, wife, widow, or maid, in whose 
affairs, secrets, suits, services, causes, actions, or other 
occupations, he hath been at any time conversant, em- 
ployed, or trained in, or admitted unto, contrary to his 
plighted promise, duty, and allegiance; and to the utter 
disparagement of others hereafter to be received, re- 
tained, embraced, or liked in like services, performances, 
or advancements. 

"Except, all intrusions and forcible entries had, made, 
or done, into or upon an^^ of the Prince's widows, or 
wards female, without special licence ; and all fines passed 
for the same. 

"Except, all concealed fools, idiots, and mad-men that 
have not to this present sued forth any livery of their 
wits, nor ouster le mayne of their senses, until the Prince 
have had primer seisin thereof. 

"Except, all such persons as, for their lucre and gain 
of living, do keep or maintain, or else frequent and resort 
unto, any common house, alley, open or privy place of 

23 



unlawful exercises; as of vaulting, bowling, or any for- 
bidden manner of shooting ; as at pricks in common high- 
ways, ways of sufferance or ease to market-towns or 
fairs, or at short butts, not being of sufficient length and 
distance, or at any roving or unconstant mark, or that 
shoot any shafts, arrows, or bolts, of unseasonable wood 
or substances, or without an head, or of too short and 
small size, contrary to the customs, laws, and statutes, in 
such cases made and provided. 

''Except, all such persons as shall put or cast into any 
waters, salt or fresh, or any brooks, brinks, chinks, pits, 
pools, or ponds, any snare, or other engine, to danger or 
destroy the fry or breed of any young lampreys, boards, 
loaches, bullheads, cods, whitings, pikes, ruffs, or pearches, 
or any other young store of spawns or fries, in any flood- 
gate, sluice, pipe, or tail of a mill, or any other streight 
stream, brook, or river, salt or fresh ; the same fish being 
then of insufficiency in age and quantity, or at that time 
not in convenient season to be used and taken. 

''Except, all such persons as shall hunt in the night,, 
or pursue any bucks or does; or with painted faces,. 
vizards, or other disguisings, in the day-time; or any 
such as do wrongfully and unlawfully, without consent or 
leave given or granted, by day or by night, break or 
enter into any park impailed, or other several close^ 
inclosure, chace, or purliew, inclosed or compassed with 
wall, pale, grove, hedge, or bushes, used still and occupied 
for the keeping, breeding, or cherishing of young deer, 
prickets, or any other game, fit to be preserved and 
nourished; or such as do hunt, chase, or drive out any 
such deer, to the prejudice and decay of such game and 
pass-times within our dominions, 

"Except, all such persons as shall shoot in any hand 
gun, demy-hag, or hag butt, either half-shot, or bullet,. 

24 



any fowl, bird, or beast ; either at any deer, red or fallow^ 
or any other thing or things, except it be a butt set, laid^ 
or raised in some convenient place, fit for the same pur- 
pose. 

'^ Except, all and every artificer, crafts-man, labourer,, 
householder, or servant, being a layman, which hath not 
lands to the yearly value of forty shillings ; or any clerk, 
not admitted or advanced to the benefice of the value of 
ten pounds per annum, that with any grey-hound, mon- 
grel, mastiff, spaniel, or other dogs, doth hunt in other 
men's parks, warrens, and coney-grees; or use any fer- 
rets, hare-pipes, snarles, ginns, or other knacks or devises, 
to take or destroy does, hares, or coneys, or other gentle- 
men's game, contrary to the form and meaning of a 
statute in that case provided. 

^'Except, all merchant-adventurers, that ship or lade 
any wares or merchandize, into any port or creek, in 
any Flemish, French, or Dutch, or other outlandish hoy, 
ship, or bottom, whereof the Prince, nor some of his 
subjects, be not possessioners and proprietaries ; and the 
masters and mariners of the same vessels and bottoms to 
be the Prince's subjects; whereby our own shipping is 
many times unfraught, contrary unto divers statutes in 
that case provided. 

^'Except, all owners, masters and pursers of our ships,. 
as, for the transportation of freight from one port to 
another, have received and taken any sums of money 
above the statute-allowance in that behalf, vis., for every 
dry fatt, 6d.; for every bale, one foot long, I5.; for every 
hogshead, pipe, or tierce of wine, 55. 

■'' Except, all decayed houses of husbandry, and house- 
wifery, and inclosures, and severalties, converting of any 
lands used and occupied to tillage and sowing, into pas- 
ture and feeding ; whereby idleness increaseth, husbandry 

25 



and housewifery is decayed, and towns are dis-peopled, 
contrary to the statute in that case made and provided. 

''Except, all such persons as shall maliciously and wil- 
fully burn or cut, or caused to be burned or cut, any 
conduit, or trough, pipe, or any other instrument used 
as a means of conveyance of any liquor, water, or other 
kind of moisture. 

"Except, all commoners within any forest, chace, moor, 
marsh, heath, or other waste ground, which hath put to 
pasture into, or upon the same, any stoned horses, not 
being of the altitude and heighth contained in the statute 
in that case made and provided for the good breed of 
strong and large horses, which is much decayed; little 
stoned horses, nags, and hobbies, being put to pasture 
there, and in such commons. 

''Except, all fugitives, failers, and flinchers, that with 
shame and discredit are fled and vanished out of the 
Prince's dominions of Purpoole, and especially from his 
Court at Graya, this time of Christmas, to withdraw 
themselves from his Honour's service and attendance, 
contrary to their duty and allegiance, and to their per- 
petual ignominy, and incurable loss of credit and good 
opinion, which belongeth to ingenuous and well-minded 
gentlemen. 

"Except, all concealments, and wrongful detainments 
of any subsidies and revenues, benevolence, and receipts 
upon privy seals, &c. 

"Except, all, and all manner of offences, pains, penal- 
ties, mulcts, fines, amerciaments, and punishments, 
corporal and pecuniary, whatsover." 

The Pardon being thus read by the Solicitor, the Prince 
made a short speech to his subjects, wherein he gave 
them to understand, that although in clemency he par- 

26 



doned all offences to that present time; yet, notwith- 
standing, his meaning thereby was not to give any the 
least occasion of presumption in breaking his laws, and 
the customs laudably used through his dominions and 
government. Neither did he now graciously forgive all 
errors and misdemeanours as he would hereafter severely 
and strictly reform the same. His will was, that justice 
should be administered to every subject, without any 
partiality ; and that the wronged should make their causes 
known to himself, by petition to the Master of the Re- 
quests : and further excused the causes of the great taxes, 
and sums of money, that were levied, by reason that his 
predecessors had not left his coffers full of treasure, nor 
his crown so furnished, as became the dignity of so great 
a Prince. 

Then his Highness called for the Master of the Revels, 
and willed him to pass the time in dancing: So his gen- 
tlemen-pensioners and attendants, very gallantly ap- 
pointed, in thirty couples, danced the old measures, and 
their galliards, and other kinds of dances, revelling until 
it was very late ; and so spent the rest of their perform- 
ance in those exercises, until it pleased his Honour to 
take his way to his lodging, with sound of trumpets, and 
his attendants in order, as is above set down. 

There was the conclusion of the first grand night, the 
performance whereof increased the expectation of those 
things that were to ensue; insomuch that the common 
report amongst all strangers was so great, and the expec- 
tation of our proceedings so extraordinary, that it urged 
us to take upon us a greater state than was at first in- 
tended : and therefore, besides all the stately and sumptu- 
ous service that was continually done the Prince, in very 
princely manner; and besides the daily revels, and such 
like sports, which were usual, there was intended divers 

27 



:grand nights, for the entertainment of strangers to our 
pass-times and sports. 

The next grand night was intended to be upon Inno- 
cents-day at night; at which time there was a great 
presence of lords, ladies, and worshipful personages^ that 
•did expect some notable performance at that time ; which, 
indeed, had been effected, if the multitude of beholders 
had not been so exceeding great, that thereby there was 
no convenient room for those that were actors ; by reason 
whereof, very good inventions and conceipts could not 
have opportunity to be applauded, which otherwise would 
have been great contentations to the beholders. Against 
which time, our friend, the Inner Temple, determined to 
send their Ambassador to our Prince of State, as sent 
from Frederick Templarius, their Emperor, who was then 
busied in his wars against the Turk. The Ambassador 
came very gallantly appointed, and attended by a great 
number of brave gentlemen, which arrived at our Court 
about nine of the clock at night. Upon their coming 
thither, the King at Arms gave notice to the Prince, then 
sitting in his chair of state in the hall, that there was 
to come to his Court an Ambassador from his ancient 
friend the State of Templaria, which desired to have 
present access unto his Highness ; and shewed his Honour 
further, that he seemed to be of very good sort, because 
he was so well attended; and therefore desired, that it 
would please his Honour that some of his Nobles and 
Lords might conduct him to his Highness 's presence, 
which was done. So he was brought in very solemnly, 
with sound of trumpets, the King at Arms and Lords of 
Purpoole making to his company, which marched before 
him in order. He was received very kindly of the Prince, 
and placed in a chair besides his Highness, to the end 
that he might be a partaker of the sports intended. But 

28 



iirst lie made a speech to the Prince, wherein he declared 
iow his excellent renown and fame was known through- 
out all the whole world ; and that the report of his great- 
ness was not contained within the bounds of the Ocean, 
but had come to the ears of his noble Sovereign, Fred- 
erick Templarius, where he is now warring against the 
'Turks, the known enemies to all Christendom ; who, hav- 
ing heard that his Excellency kept his Court at Graya 
this Christmas, thought it to stand with his ancient league 
of amity and near kindness, that so long had been con- 
tinued and increased by their noble ancestors of famous 
memory and desert, to gratulate his happiness, and 
flourishing estate; and' in that regard, had sent him his 
Ambassador, to be. residing at his Excellency's Court, in 
honour of his greatness, and token of his tender love and 
good-will he beareth to his Higne^s; the confirmation 
whereof he especially required, and by all means possible 
would study to increase and eternize ; which function he 
was the more willing to accomiDlish, because our State of 
Graya did grace Templaria with the presence of an Am- 
bassador about thirty years since, upon like occasion. 

Our Prince made him this answer: That he did ac- 
l^nowledge that the great kindness of his Lord, whereby 
he doth invite to further degrees in firm and loyal friend- 
ship, did deserve all honourable commendations, and ef- 
fectual accomplishment, that by any means might be 
■devised ; and that he accounted himself happy, by having 
the sincere and steadfast love of so gracious and re- 
nowed a Prince, as his Lord and Master deserved to be 
esteemed; and that nothing in the world should hinder 
the due observation of so inviolable a band as he esteemed 
his favour and good-will. Withal, he entered into com- 
mendation of his noble and courageous enterprizes, in 
that he chuseth out an adversary fit for his greatness to 

29 



encounter with, his Honour to be illustrated by, and 
such an enemy to all Christendom, as that the glory of 
his actions tend to the safety and liberty of all civility 
and humanity: yet, notwithstanding that he was thus 
employed in this action of honouring us, he shewed both 
his honourable mindfulnes of our love and friendship, 
and also his own puissance, that can afford so great a 
number of brave gentlemen, and so gallantly furnished 
and accomplished : and so concluded, with a welcome both 
to the Ambassador himself and his favourites, for their 
Lord and Master's sake, and so for their own good deserts 
and condition. 

When the Ambassador was placed, as aforesaid, and 
that there was something to be performed for the delight 
of the beholders, there arose such a disordered tumult 
and crowd upon the stage, that there was no opportunity 
to effect that which was intended : there came so great a 
number of worshipful personages upon the stage that 
might not be displaced, and gentlewomen whose sex did 
privilege them from violence, that when the Prince and 
his oflBcers had in vain, a good while, expected and en- 
deavoured a reformation, at length there was no hope of 
redress for that present. The Lord Ambassador and his 
train thought that they were not so kindly entertained 
as was before expected, and thereupon would not stay 
any longer at that time, but, in a sort, discontented and 
displeased. After their departure, the throngs and 
tumults did somewhat cease, although so much of them 
continued as was able to disorder and confound any good 
inventions whatsoever. In regard whereof, as also for 
that the sports intended were especially for the gracing 
the Templarians, it was thought good not to offer any 
thing of account, saving dancing and revelling with gen- 
tlewomen; and after such sports, a Comedy of Errors 

30 



(like to Plautus liis Menechmus) was played by the play- 
ers. So that night was begun and continued to the end 
in nothing but confusion and errors; wliereupon, it was 
ever afterwards called, "The Night of Errors." 

This mischanceful accident sorting so ill, to the great 
prejudice of the rest of our proceedings, was a great dis- 
couragement and disparagement to our whole state ; yet 
it gave occasion to the lawyers of the Prince's Council, 
the next night, after revels, to read a commission of Oyer 
and Terminer, directed to certain Noblemen and Lords 
of his Highness 's Council, and others, that they should 
enquire, or cause enquiry to be made, of some great dis- 
orders and abuses lately done and committed within his 
Highnesses dominions of Purpoole, especially by sorceries 
and inchantments ; and namely, of a great witchcraft used 
the night before, whereby there were great disorders and 
misdemeanours, by hurly-burlies, crowds, errors, con- 
fusions, vain representations, and shows, to the utter dis- 
credit of our state and policy. 

The next night upon this occasion, we preferred judg- 
ments thick and three-fold, which were read pulickly by 
the Clerk of the Crown, being all against a sorcerer or 
conjurer that was supposed to be the cause of that con- 
fused inconvenience. Therein was contained. How he 
had caused the stage to be built, and scaffolds to be reared 
to the top of the house, to increase expectation. Also 
how he had caused divers ladies and gentlemen, and 
others of good condition to be invited to our sports ; also 
our dearest friend the State ofTemplaria, to be disgraced^ 
and disappointed of their kind entertainment, deserved 
and intended. Also that he caused throngs and tumults,, 
crowds and outrages, to disturb our whole proceedings. 
And lastly, that he had foisted a company of base and 
common fellows, to make up our disorders with a play 

31 



of Errors and Confusions ; and that that night had gained 
to ns discredit, and itself a nickname of Errors. All 
which were against the crown and dignity of our Sover- 
eign Lord the Prince of Purpoole. 

Under colour of these proceedings, were laid open to 
the view all the causes of note that were committed by 
our chiefest statesmen in the government of our princi- 
pality ; and every officer in any great place, that had not 
performed his duty in that service, was taxed hereby, from 
the highest to the lowest, not sparing the guard and 
porters, that suffered so many disordered persons to 
enter in at the court-gates : upon whose aforesaid indict- 
ments the prisoner was arraigned at the bar, being 
brought thither by the Lieutenant of the Tower (for at 
that time the stocks were graced with that name) ; and 
the Sheriff impannelled a jury of twenty-four gentlemen, 
that were to give their verdict upon the evidence given. 
The prisoner appealed to the Prince his Excellency for 
justice; and humbly desired that it would please his 
Highness to understand the truth of the matter by his 
supplication, which he had ready to be offered to the 
Master of the Requests. The Prince gave leave to the 
Master of the Requests, that he should read the petition ; 
wherein was a disclosure of all the knavery and jug- 
gling of the Attorney and Solicitor, which had brought 
all this law-stuff on purpose to blind the eyes of his Ex- 
cellency and all the honourable Court there, going about 
to make them think that those things which they all saw 
and perceived sensibly to be in very deed done, and 
actually performed, were nothing else but vain illusions, 
fancies, dreams, and enchantments, and to be wrought 
and compassed by the means of a poor harmless wretch, 
that never had heard of such great matters in all his life: 
whereas the very fault was in the negligence of the 

32 



Prince's Council, Lords, and Officers of his State, that 
had the rule of the roast, and by whose advice the Com- 
monwealth was so soundly misgoverned. To prove these 
things to be true, he brought divers instances of great 
absurdities committed by the greatest: and made such 
allegations as could not be denied. These were done by 
some that were touched by the. Attorney and Solicitor 
in their former proceedings, and they used the prison- 
er's names for means of quittance with them in that 
behalf. But the Prince and States-men (being pinched 
on both sides by both parties) were not a little otf ended 
at the great liberty that they had taken in censuring 
so far of his Highness 's government; and thereupon the 
prisoner was freed and pardoned, the Attorney, Solicitor, 
Master of the Requests, and those that were acquainted 
with the draught of the petition, were all of. them com- 
manded to the Tower; so the Lieutenant took charge of 
them. And this was the end of our law-sports, concern- 
ing the Night of Errors. 

When we were wearied with mocking thus at our own 
follies, at length there was a great consultation had for 
the recovery of our lost honour. It was then concluded, 
that first the Prince's Council should be reformed, and 
some graver conceipts should have their places, to ad- 
vise upon those things that were propounded to be done 
afterward. Therefore, upon better consideration, there 
were divers plots and devices intended against the Friday 
after the New-year's-day, being the 3d of January; and, 
to prevent all unruly tumults, and former inconveniences, 
there was provided a watch of armed men, to ward at the 
four ports; and whifflers to make good order under the 
four Barons; and the Lord Warden to over-see them 
all; that none but those that were of good condition might 

33 



be suffered to be let into the Court. And the like of- 
ficers were every where appointed. 

On the 3d of January at night, there was a most 
honourable presence of great and noble personages, 
that came as invited to our Prince; as namely, the Eight 
Honourable the Lord Keeper, the Earls of Shrewsbury, 
Cumberland, Northumberland, Southampton, and Es- 
sex; the Lords Buckhurst, Windsor, Mountjoy, Sheffield, 
Compton, Eich, Burleygh, Mounteagle, and the Lord 
Thomas Howard; Sir Thomas Henneage, Sir Eobert 
Cecill ; with a great number of knights, ladies, and very 
worshipful personages; all which had convenient places, 
and very good entertainment, to their good liking and 
contentment. 

When they were all thus placed and settled in very 
good order, the Prince came into the Hall with his wonted 
state, and- ascended his throne at the high end of the 
Hall, under his Highness 's arms; and after him came 
the Ambassador of Templaria, with his train likewise, 
and was placed by the Prince as he was before ; his train 
also had places reserved for them, and were provided for 
them particularly. Then, after a variety of musick, they 
were presented with this device. 

At the side of the Hall, behind a curtain, was erected 
an altar to the Goddess of Amity ; her arch-flamen ready 
to attend the sacrifice and incense that should, by her 
servants, be offered unto her : round about the same sate 
Nymphs and Fairies, with instruments of musick, and 
made very pleasant melody with viols and voices, and 
sang hymns and prayses to her deity. 

Then issued forth of another room the first pair of 
friends, which were Theseus and Perithous ; they came in 
arm in arm, and offered incense upon the altar to their 

34 



Goddess, which shined and burned very clear, without 
blemish; which being done they departed. 

Then likewise came Achilles and Patroclus ; after them, 
Pylades and Orestes; then Scipio and Lelius: and all 
these did, in all things, as the former; and so departed. 

Lastly, were presented Grains and Templarius; and 
they two came lovingly, arm in arm, to the altar, and 
offered their incense as the rest, but the Goddess did not 
accept of their service; which appeared by the troubled 
smoak, and dark vapour, that choaked the flame, and 
smothered the clear burning thereof. Hereat, the arcli- 
flamen, willing to pacifie the angry Goddess, preferred 
certain mystical ceremonies and invocations, and com- 
manded the nymphs to sing some hymns of pacification to 
her deity, and caused them to make proffer of their devo- 
tion again; which they did, and then the flame burnt 
more clear than at any time before, and continued longer 
in brightness and shining to them than to any of those 
pairs of friends that had gone before them ; and so they 
departed. 

Then the arch-flamen did pronounce Grayus and Tem- 
plarius to be as true and perfect friends, and so familiarly 
united and linked with the bond and league of sincere 
friendship and amity, as ever were Theseus and Peri- 
thous, Achilles and Patroclus, Pylades and Orestes, or 
Scipio and Laelius; and therewithal did further divine, 
that this love should be perpetual. And, lastly, de- 
nounced a heavy curse on them that shall any way go 
about to break or weaken the same; and an happiness 
to them that study and labour to eternize it for ever. So, 
with sweet and pleasant melody, the curtain was drawn 
as it was at first. 

Thus was this shew ended, which was devised to that 
end, that those that were present might understand, that 

35 



the unkindness which was growing betwixt the Tem- 
plarians and us, by reason of the former Night of Errors 
and the uncivil behaviour wherewith they were enter- 
tained, as before I have partly touched, was now clean 
rooted out and forgotten, and that we now were more 
firm friends, and kind lovers, than ever before we had 
been, contrary to the evil reports that some enviers of 
our happiness had sown abroad. 

The Prince then spake to the Ambassador, that the 
shew had contented him exceedingly; the rather, that it 
appeared thereby, that their ancient amity was so fresh 
and flourishing, that no friendship in the world hath 
been compared to the love and good-will of the Grayans 
and Templarians. And to the end that he might shew 
that the conceipt was pleasing unto him, his Highness 
offered the Lord Ambassador, and some of his retinue, 
with the Knighthood of the Helmet, an Order of his own 
institution. 

To that end his Excellency called to him his King at 
Arms, and willed him to place the Ambassador, and some 
of his followers, and also some of his own Court, that they 
might receive the dignity at his hands ; which being done^ 
and the Master of the Jewels attending with the Collar 
of the Order, the Prince came down from his chair of 
state, and took a collar, and put it about the Lord Am- 
bassador's neck, he kneeling down on his left knee; and 
said to him, "Sois Chivalor:" and so was done to the 
rest, to the number of twenty-four. 

So the Prince and the Lord Ambassador took their 
places again in their chairs, and the rest according to 
their condition. 

Then Helmet, his Highness 's King at Arms, stood 
before the Prince, in his surcoat of arms, and caused the 
trumpets to sound, and made his speech ; as doth follow : 

36 



"The most mighty and puissant Prince, Sir Henry, 
my gracious Lord and Sovereign Prince of Piirpoole, 
Archduke of StapuUa and Bernardia, Duke of High and 
Nether Holhorn, Marquis of St. Giles's and Tottenham, 
Count Palatine of Bloomshury and Clerkenwell, Great 
Lord of the Cantons of Islington, Kentish Toivn, Pad- 
dington, and Knight' s-bridge, hath heretofore, for the 
special gracing of the nobility of his realm, and honour- 
ing the deserts of strangers, his favourites, instituted a 
most honourable Order of Knighthood of the Helmet, 
whereof his Honour is Sovereign, in memory of the arms 
he beareth, worthily given to one of his noble ancestors, 
many years past, for saving the life of his then Sov- 
ereign ; in regard that as the Helmet def endeth the chief- 
est part of the body, the head ; so did he guard and defend 
the sacred person of the Prince, the head of the state. 
His Highness at this time had made choice of a number 
of vertuous and noble personages, to admit them into 
his honourable Society; whose good example may be a 
spur and encouragement to the young nobility of his 
dominions, to cause them to aspire to the heighth of all 
honourable deserts. 

"To the honourable Order are annexed strict rules of 
arms, and civil government, religiously to be observed 
by all those that are admitted to this dignity. You 
therefore, most noble Gentlemen, whom his Highness at 
this time so greatly honoureth with his Royal Order, you 
must every one of you kiss your helmet, and thereby 
promise and vow to observe and practice, or otherwise, 
as the case shall require, shun and avoid all these con- 
stitutions and ordinances, which, out of the records of 
my Office of Arms, I shall read unto you." 

Then the King at Arms took his book, and turned to 
the articles of the orders; and read them, as followeth: 

37 



** Imprimis, Every Knight of this honourable Order, 
whether he be a natural subject, or stranger born, shall 
promise never to bear arms against his Highness 's 
sacred person, nor his state; but to assist him in all his 
lawful wars, and maintain all his just pretences and 
titles; especially, his Highness 's title to the land of the 
Ama zons, d {sic) the Cape of Good Hope. 

"Item, no Knight of this Order shall, in point of 
honour, resort to any grammar-rules out of the books 
J)e Dullo, or such like," but shall, out of his own brave 
mind, and natural courage, deliver himself from scorns, 
iis to his own discretion shall seem convenient. 

''Item, no Knight of this Order shall be inquisitive 
towards any lady or gentlewoman, whether her beauty be 
English or Italian, or whether, with care-taking, she have 
added half a foot to her stature ; but shall take all to the 
best. Neither shall any Knight of the aforesaid Order 
presume to affirm, that faces were better twenty years 
ago than they are at this present time, except such 
Knights have passed three climaeterical years. 

"Item, eve rie Knight of this Order is bound to perform 
all requisite and manly service, be it night-service, or 
otherwise, as the case requireth, to all ladies and gen- 
tlewomen, beautiful by nature or by art ; ever offering his 
aid, without any demand thereof ; and if in case he fail to 
so do, he shall be deemed a match of disparagement to 
any his Highness 's widows, or wards-female; and his Ex- 
cellency shall in justice forbear to make any tender of 
him to any such ward or widow. 

"Item, no Knight of this Order shall procure any let- 
ters from his Highness to any widow or maid, for his 
enablement and commendation to be advanced to mar- 
riage ; but all prerogative, wooing set apart, shall for ever 
cease, as to any of these Knights, and shall be left to the 



common laws of this land, declared by the statute, Quia 
Electiones liberae esse debent. 

"Item, no Knight of this honorable Order, in case he 
shall grow into decay, shall procure from his Highness 
relief and sustentation, any monopolies or privileges, ex- 
cept only these kinds following: that is to say, Upon 
every tobacco-pipe, not being one foot wide ; upon every 
lock that is w^orn, not being seven feet long ; upon every 
health that is drunk, not being of a glass five foot deep ; 
and upon every maid in his Highness 's province of 
Islington, continuing a virgin after the age of fourteen 
years, contrary to the use and custom in that place always 
liad and observed. 

"Item, no Knight of this Order shall have any more 
than one mistress, for whose sake he shall be allowed to 
wear three colours: but, if he will have two mistresses, 
then must he wear six colours ; and so forward, after the 
rate of three colours to a mistress. 

"Item, no Knight of this Order shall put out any 
money upon strange returns or performances to be made 
by his own person ; as, to hop up the stairs to the top of 
St. Paul's, without intermission; or any other such like 
agilities or endurances, except it may appear that the 
same performances or practices do enable him to some 
service or employment; as, if he do undertake to go a 
journey backward, the same shall be thought to enable 
him to be an Ambassador into Turkey. 

"Item, no Knight of this Order, that hath had any 
licence to travel into foreign countries, be it by map, 
card, sea, or land, and hath returned from thence, shall 
presume upon the warrant of a traveller, to report any 
extraordinary varieties ; as, that he hath ridden through 
Venice on horse-back post ; or that in December he sailed 
by the Cape of Norway; or that he hath travelled over 



^ 



the most part of the countries of Geneva; or such like 
hyperbolies, contrary to the statute, Propterea quod qui 
diversos terrarum ambitus errent S vagantur, Sc. 

"Item, every Knight of this Order shall do his en- 
deavour to be much in the books of the worshipful citi- 
zens of the principal city, next adjoining to the terri- 
tories of Purpoole; and none shall unlearnedly, or with- 
out looking, pay ready money for any wares, or other 
things pertaining to the gallantness of his Honour's 
Court; to the ill example of others, and utter subversion 
of credit betwixt man and man. 

''Item, every Knight of this Order shall apply himself 
to some or other vertuous quality or ability of learning^ 
honour, and arms ; and shall not think it sufficient to come 
into his Honour's Presence-Chamber in good apparel 
only, or to be able to keep company at play and gaming ; 
for such it is already determined, that they be put and 
taken for implements of household, and are placed in his 
Honour's Inventory. 

"Item, every Knight of this Order shall endeavour to 
add conference and exrience {sic) by reading; and 
therefore shall not only read and peruse Guizo, the French 
Academy, Galiatto the Courtier, Plutarch, the Arcadia, 
and the Neoterical Writers, from time to time; but also 
frequent the Theatre, and such like places of experience ;. 
and resort to the better sort of ordinaries for conference -y. 
whereby they may not only become accomplished with 
civil conversations, and able to govern a table with dis- 
course ; but also sufficient, if need be, to make epigrams,, 
emblems, and other devices, appertaining to his Honour's 
learned revels. 

"Item, no Knight of this Order shall give out what 
gracious words the Prince hath given him, nor leave word 
at his chamber, in case any come to speak with him, that 

40 



he is above with his Excellency : nor cause his man, when; 
lie shall be in any public assembly, to call him suddenly 
to go to the Prince, nor cause any packet of letters to be 
brought at dinner or supper time, nor say that he had the 
refusal of some great office, nor satisfy suitors, to say, 
his Honour is not in any good disposition, nor make any 
narrow observation of his Excellency's nature and fash- 
ions, as if he were inward privately with his Honour;; 
contrary to the late inhibition of selling of smoak. 

''Item, no Knight of this Order shall be armed, for 
the safeguard of his countenance, with a pipe in his 
mouth, in the nature of a tooth-picker, or with any^ 
weapon in his hand, be it stick, plume, wand, or any such 
like ; neither shall he draw out of his pocket any book or 
paper, to read for the same intent ; neither shall he retain 
any extraordinary shrug, nod, or other familiar motion or 
gesture, to the same end ; for his Highness, of his gracious 
clemency, is disposed to lend his countenance to all such 
Knights as are out of countenance. 

''Item, no Knight of this Order, that weareth fustian, 
cloth, or such statute-apparel, for necessity, shall pretend' 
to wear the same for the new fashion's sake. 

' ' Item, no Knight of this Order, in walking the streets,. 
or other places of resort, shall bear his hands in his 
pockets of his great rolled hose, with the Spanish wheel, 
if it be not either to defend his hands from the cold, or 
else to guard forty shillings sterling, being in the same 
pockets. 

"Item, no Knight of this Order shall lay to pawn his 
Collar of Knighthood for an hundred pounds ; and, if he 
do, she shall be, ipso facto, discharged; and it shall be- 
lawful for any man whatsoever, that will retain the same 
Collar for the sum aforesaid, forthwith to take upon him 
the said Knighthood, by reason of a secret vertue in the' 

41 



Collar; for in this Order, it is liolden for a certain rule, 
that the Knighthood foUoweth the Collar, and not the 
Collar the Knighthood. 

"Item, that no Knight of this Order shall take upon 
him the person of a male-content, in going with a more 
private retinue than appertaineth to his degree, and 
using but special obscure company, and commending 
none but men disgraced, and out of office ; and smiling at 
good news, as if he knew something that were not true; 
and making odd notes of his Highness 's reign, and for- 
mer governments; or saying, that his Highness 's sports 
were well sorted with a Play of Errors; and such like 
pretty speeches of jest, to the end that he may more safely 
utter his malice against his Excellency's happiness; upon 
pain to be present at all his Excellency's most glorious 
Triumphs. 

"Lastly, all the Knights of this honourable Order, and 
the renowned Sovereign of the same, shall yield all hom- 
age, loyalty, unaffected admiration, and all humble serv- 
ice, of what name or condition soever, to the incompar- 
able Empress of the Fortunate Island." 

When the King at Arms had read all these articles 
of the Order of the Knighthood, and finished the cere- 
monies belonging to the same, and that every one had 
taken their places as before, there was a variety of con- 
sort-musick; and in the mean while, the Knights of the 
Order which were not strangers brought into the hall a 
running banquet, in very good order, and gave it to the 
Prince, and Lords, and other Strangers, in imitation of 
the feast that belongeth to all such honourable institu- 
tions. 

This being done, there was a table set in the midst of 
the stage, before the Prince's seat; and there sat six of 
the Lords of his Privy Council, which at that time were 

42 



appointed to attend, in council, the Prince's leisure. Then 
the Prince spake to them in this manner: 

"My Lords, 

"We have made choice of you, as our most faithful 
and favoured Counsellors, to advise with you, not any 
particular action of our State, but in general, of the scope 
and end whereunto you think it most for our honour, and 
the happiness of our State, tliat our government be 
rightly bent and directed ; for we mean not to do as many 
Princes use; which conclude of their ends out of their 
own honours, and take counsel only of the means. (abus- 
ing, for the most part, the wisdom of their Counsellors) 
set them the right way to tlie wrong place. But we, desir- 
ous to leave as little to chance or humour as may be, do 
now give you liberty and warrant to set before us, to 
what port, as it were, the ship of our government should 
be bounden. And this we require you to do, without 
either respect to our affections, or your own; neither 
guessing what is most agreeable with our disposition, 
wherein we may easily deceive you; for Princes' hearts 
are inscrutable: nor, on the other side, putting the case 
by yourselves, as if you would present us with a robe, 
whereof measure were taken by j^ourselves. Thus you 
perceive our mind, and we expect your answer." 

The First Counsellor advising the Exercise of War. 
"Most Excellent Prince, 

"Except there be such amongst us, as I am fully per- 
suaded there is none, that regardeth more his own great- 
ness under you, than your great (sic) over others, I think ^'' , ^ 
there will be little difference in the chusing for you a goal '^ 
worthy your vertue and power. For he that shall set 
before him your magnanimity and valour, supported by 
the youth and disposition of your body; your flourishing 

43 



"Court, like the horse of Troy, full of brave commanders 
and leaders ; your populous and man-rife provinces, over- 
flowing with warlike people ; your coffers, like the Indian 
mines when that they are first opened ; your store-houses 
are as sea-walls, like to Vulcan's cave ; your navy like to an 
huge floating city; the devotion of your subjects to your 
crown and person, their good agreement amongst them- 
selves, their wealth and provision : and then your strength 
and unrevocable confederation with the noble and honour- 
able personages, and the fame and reputation without of 
so rare a concurrence, whereof all the former regards do 
:grow: how can he think any exercise worthy of your 
means, but that of conquest? for, in few words, what is 
your strength, if you find it not? Your fortune, if you 
try it not? Your vertue, if you show it not? Think, ex- 
cellent Prince, what sense of content you found in your- 
self when you were first invested in our state : for though 
. I know your Excellency is far from vanity and lightness, 
yet it is the nature of all things to find rest when they 
come to due and proper places. But be assured of this, 
that this delight will languish and vanish; for power will 
quench appetite, and satiety will endure tediousness. But 
if you embrace the wars, your trophies and triumphs will 
be as continual coronations that will not suffer your 
glory and contentment to fade and wither. Then, when 
you have enlarged your territories, ennobled your coun- 
try, distributed fortunes, good or bad, at your pleasure, 
not only to particulars, but to cities and nations ; marked 
the computations of time with your expeditions and 
voyages, and the memory of places by your exploits and 
victories, in your later years you shall find a sweet respect 
into the adventures of your youth, you shall enjoy your 
reputation, you shall record your travels, and after your 
■own time you shall eternize your name, and leave deep 

44 



foot-steps of your power in the world. To conclude, ex- 
-cellent Prince, and most worthy to have the titles of vic- 
tories added to your high and deserved titles: remem- 
ber, the Divines find nothing more glorious to resemble 
■our state unto than warfare. All things in earnest and 
jest do affect a kind of victory, and all other victories 
are but shadows to the victories of the wars. Therefore 
■embrace the wars, for they disparage you not; and be- 
lieve, that if any Prince do otherwise, it is either in the 
^'eakness of his mind or means." 

The Second Counsellor, advising the Study of Phi- 
losophy. 

"It may seem. Most Excellent Prince, that my Lord, 
which now hath spoken, did never read the just censures 
of the wisest men, who compared great conquerors to 
great rovers and witches, whose power is in destruction, 
and not in preservation; else would he never have ad- 
vised your Excellency to become as some comet, or blaz- 
ing-star, which would threaten and portend nothing but 
death and dearth, combustions and troubles of the world. 
And whereas the governing faculties of men are two, 
force and reason; whereof the one is brute, and the other 
divine, he wisheth you for your principal ornament and 
regality, the talons of the eagle to catch the prey, and 
not tlio piercing sight which seeth into the bottom of the 
sea: but I, contrarywise, v/ill wish unto your Highness 
the exercise of the best and purest part of the mind, and 
the most innocent and meriting request, being the con- 
quest of the works of nature ; making his proportion, that 
yon bend the excellency of your spirics to the searching 
out, inventing, and discovering of all whatsoever is hid in 
secret in the w^orld, that your Excellency be not as a 
lamp that shineth to others, and yet seeth not itself; but 

45 



l/- 



as the eye of the world, that both carrieth and useth light. 
Antiquity, that presenteth unto ns in dark visions the 
wisdom of former times, informetli us, that the kingdoms 
have always had an affinity with the secrets and mys- 
teries of learning. Amongst the Persians, the Kings were 
attended on by the Magi ; the Gymnasophists had all the 
government under the Princes of Asia; and generally 
those kingdoms were accounted most happy, that had 
rulers most addicted to philosophy: the Ptolemies of 
Egypt may be for instance; and Solyman was a man so 
seen in the universality of nature, that he wrote an herbal 
of all that was green upon the earth. No conquest of 
Julius Caesar made him so remembered as the Calendar. 
Alexander the Great wrote to Aristotle upon the pub- 
lishing of the Physicks, that he esteemed more of excel- 
lent men in knowledge, than in empire. And to this pur- 
pose I will commend to your Highness four principal 
works and monuments of yourself: First, the collecting 
of a most perfect and general library, wherein whatso- 
ever the wit of man hath heretofore committed to books 
of worth, be they ancient or modern, printed or manu- 
script, European or of the other parts, of one or other 
language, may be made contributary to your wisdom. 
^ Next, a spacious, wonderful garden, wherein whatsoever 

plant, the sun of divers climates, out of the earth of divers 
moulds, either wild, or by the culture of man, brought 
forth, may be, with that care that appertaineth to the 
good prospering thereof, set and cherished. This garden 
to be built about with rooms, to stable in all rare beasts, 
and to cage in all rare birds; with two lakes adjoining, 
the one of fresh water, and the other of salt, for like va- 
riety of fishes : and so you may have, in a small compass, 
a model of universal nature made private. The third a 
goodlv huge cabinet, wherein whatsoever the hand of 



man, by exquisite art or engine, hath made rare in stuff, 
form, or motion, whatsoever singularity, chance, and the 
shtiffle of things hath produced, whatsoever nature hath 
wrought in things that want life, and may be kept, shall 
be sorted and included. The fourth, such a Still-house 
so furnished with mills, instruments, furnaces, and ves- 
sels, as may be a Palace lit for a philosopher's stone. 
Thus when your Excellency shall have added depth of 
knowledge to the fineness of spirits, and greatness of 
your power, then indeed shall you lay a Trismegistus ; 
and then, when all other miracles and wonders shall cease, 
by reason that you shall have discovered their natural 
causes, yourself shall be left the only miracle and wonder 
of the world." 

The Third Counsellor, advising Eternizement and Fame, 
by Buildings and Foundations. 

"My Lords that have already spoken, most excellent 
Prince, have both used one fallacy, in taking that for cer- 
tain and granted, which was most uncertain and doubt- 
ful: for the one hath neither drawn in question the suc- 
cess and fortune of the wars; nor the other, the difficul- 
ties and errors in the conclusions of nature: but these 
immoderate hopes and promises do many times issue 
from those of the wars, into tragedies of calamities and 
distresses; and those of mystical philosophy, into come- 
dies of ridiculous frustrations and disappointments of 
such conceipts and curiosities: but, on the other side, in 
one point my Lords have well agreed, that they both, 
according to their several intentions, counselled your 
Excellency to win fame, and to eternize your name; 
though the one adviseth it in a course of great peril, and 
the other, of little dignity and magnificence. But the 
plain and approved way that is safe, and yet proportion- 

47 



at)le to the greatness of a Monarch, to present himself to 
posterity, is not rumour and hear-say; but the usual 
memory of himself, is the magnificence of goodly and 
Uoyal buildings and foundations, and the new institutions 
-of orders, ordinances, and societies: that is, that your 
coin be stamped with your own image; so in every part 
of your State there may be somewhat new; which by 
•continuance may make the founder and author remem- 
bered. It was perceived at the first, when men sought to 
cure mortality by fame, that buildings was the only way ; 
and thereof proceeded the known holy antiquity of build- 
ing the Tower of Babel; which, as it was a sin in the 
immoderate appetite of fame, so was it punished in the 
kind; for the diversities of languages have imprisoned 
fame ever since. As for the pyramids, the colosses, the 
number of temples, colleges, bridges, aqueducts, castles, 
theatres, palaces, and the like, they may shew us, that 
men ever mistrusted any other way to fame than this 
only, of works and monuments. Yea, even they which 
had the best choice of other means. Alexander did not 
think his fame so engraven in his conquests, but that he 
thought it further shined in the buildings of Alexandria. 
Augustus Csesar thought no man had done greater things 
in military actions than himself; yet that which, at his 
death, ran most in his mind, was his buildings ; when he 
said, not as some mistake it, metaphorically, but literally, 
^I found the City of brick, but I leave it of marble.' 
Constantine the Great was wont to call with envy the 
Emperor Trajan 'AVall-flower,' because his name was 
upon so many buildings; which, notwithstanding, he him- 
sielf did embrace in the new founding of Constantinople, 
and sundry other buildings: and yet none greater con- 
querors than these two. And surely they had reason; 
for the fame of great actions is like to a land-flood, wl^ch 



hath no certain head or spring, but the memory and fame 
of buildings and foundations hath, as it were, a fountain 
in an hill, which continually feedeth and refresheth the 
other waters. Neither do I, excellent Prince, restrain 
my Speeches to dead buildings only, but intend it also to 
other foundations, institutions, and creations; wherein 
1 presume the more to speak confidently, because I am 
warranted herein by your own wisdom, who have made 
the first fruits of your actions of state, to institute the 
honourable Order of the Helmet ; the less shall I need to 
say, leaving your Excellency not so much to follow my 
advice, as your own example." 

Tne Fourth Councellor, advising Absoluteness of State 
and Treasure. 

"Let it not seem pusillanimity for your Excellency, 
mighty Prince, to descend a little from your high 
thoughts to a necessary consideration of your own estate. 
Neither do you deny. Honourable Lords, to acknowledge 
safety, profit, and power, to be of the substance of policy, 
and fame and honour rather to be as flowers of well- 
ordered actions, than as good guides. Now if you ex- 
amine the courses propounded according to these re- 
spects, it must be confessed, that the course of wars may 
seem to increase power, and the course of contemplations 
and foundations not prejudice safety; but if you look 
beyond the exterior, you shall find that the first breeds 
weakness, and the latter note peril : for certain it is, dur- 
ing wars, your Excellency will be enforced to your soul- 
•diers, and generally to your people, and become less abso-. 
lute and monarchical than if you reigned in peace ; and 
then if your success be good, that you make new con- 
<l|uests, you shall be constrained to spend the strength of 
vour ancient and settled provinces, to assure vou new and 



doubtful, and become like a strong man, that, by taking 
a great burden upon his shoulders, maketh himself 
weaker than he was before. Again, if you think you 
may not end contemplations with security, your Excel- 
lency will be deceived; for such studies will make you 
retired and disused with your business; whence will 
follow admiration of your authority; as for the other 
point, of exercising in every part of your state something 
new, derived from yourself, it will acquaint your Excel- 
lency with an humor of innovation and alteration ; which 
will make your Eeign very turbulent and unsettled, and 
many times your change will be for worse; as in the ex- 
ample last touched, of Constantine, who, by his new trans- 
lation of his estate, ruinated the Roman Empire. As for 
profit, there appeareth a direct contrariety betwixt that 
and all the three courses ; for nothing causeth such dissi- 
pation of treasure as wars, curiosities, and buildings ; and 
for all this to be recompensed in a supposed honour, a 
matter apt to be much extolled in words, but not greatly 
to be praised in conceit, I do think it a loser's bargain. 
Besides that, many politic Princes have received as much 
commendation for their wise and well ordered govern- 
ment, as others have done for their conquests and glor- 
ious affections. And more worthy, because the praise of 
wisdom and judgment is less communicated with fortune. 
Therefore, excellent Prince, be not transported with 
shews; follow the order of nature, first to make the most 
of that you possess, before you seek to purchase more. 
To put the case by a private man (for I cannot speak 
high), if a man were born to an hundred pounds by the 
year, and one shew him how with charge to purchase an 
hundred pounds more, and another should shew him how 
without charge to raise that hundred pounds unto five 
hundred pounds, I should think the latter advice should 

50. . . . 



be followed. The proverb is a countrey proverb, but sig- 
nificative, 'Milk the cow that standeth still; why follow 
you her that flieth away 1 ' Do not think, excellent Prince, 
that all the conquests you are to make be foreign; you 
are to conquer here at home the overgrowing of your 
grandees in factions, and too great liberties of your peo- 
ple, the great reverence and formalities given to your 
laws and customs, in derogation of your absolute preroga- 
tives; these and such like be conquests of state, though 
not of war. You want a Joseph, that should by advice 
make you the only proprietor of all the lands and wealth 
of your subjects. The means how to strain up your sov- 
ereignty, and how to accumulate treasure and revenue, 
they are the secrets of your State : I will not enter into 
them at this place; I wish your Excellency as ready to 
them, as I know the means ready to perform them." 

The Fifth Councellor, advising him Vertue, and a Grace- 
ious Government. 

"Most Excellent Prince, 
"I have heard sundry plats and propositions offered 
unto you severally: one, to make you a great Prince; 
another, to make you a strong Prince; and another to 
make you a memorable Prince; and a fourth, to make 
you an absolute Prince ; but I hear of no mention to make 
you a good and virtuous Prince ; which surely my Lords 
have left out in discretion, as to arise of your own motion 
and choice; and so I should have thought, had they not 
handled their own propositions so artificially and per- 
swadingly, as doth assure me their Speech was not for- 
mal. But, most worthy Prince, fame is too light, and 
profit and surety are too low, and power is either such as 
you have, or ought not so to seek to have ; it is the merit- 
ing of your subjects, the making of golden times, the be- 

51 



coming of a natural parent to your State: these are the 
only and worthy ends of your Grace's virtuous Reign. 
My Lords have taught you to refer all things to yourself^ 
your greatness, memory, and advantage; but whereunto 
shall yourself be referred? If you will be heavenly, you_ 
must have influence; will you be as a standing pool, that 
spendeth and choaketh his spring within itself, and hath 
no streams nor current to bless and make fruitful whole^ 
tracts of countreys, whereby it reneweth? Wherefore, 
iirst of all, most virtuous Prince, assure yourself of an 
inward Peace, that the storms without do not disturb any 
of your repairers of State within ; therein use and prac- 
tise all honourable diversions ; that done, visit all the parts 
of your State, and let the balm distil every where from, 
your Sovereign hands, to the medicining of any part that 
complaineth, beginning with your seat of State, take order 
that the fault of your greatness do not rebound upon your- 
self ; have care that your intelligence, which is the light 
of your State, do not go out, or burn dim or obscure ; ad- 
vance men of virtue, and not of mercenary minds; re- 
press all faction, be it either malign or violent. Then 
look into the state of your laws, and justice of your land ; 
purge out multiplicity of laws, clear the incertainty of 
them, repeal those that are snaring, and prize the execu- 
tion of those that are wholesome and necessary; define 
the jurisdiction of your Courts, reprize all suits and vex- 
ations, all causeless delays and fraudulent shifts and de- 
vices, and reform all such abuses of right and justice, 
assist the ministers thereof, punish severely all extortions 
and exactions of officers,, all corruptions in trials and sen- 
tences of judgment. YeL, when you have done all this, 
think not that the bridle- and spur will make the horse 
to go alone without time and custom. Trust not to your 
laws for correcting the times, but give all strength to- 

52 



good education ; see to the government of your Universi- 
ties, and all seminaries of youth, and of the private order 
of families, maintaining due obedience of children 
towards their parents, and reverence of the younger sort 
towards the ancient. Then when you have confirmed the 
noble and vital parts of your realm of State, proceed to 
take care of the blood and flesh, and good habit of the 
body. liemedy all decays of population, make provision 
for the poor, remove all stops in traffick, and all cancers 
and causes of consumption in trades and mysteries; re- 
dross all but whither do I run, exceeding the bounds of 
that perhaps I am now demanded ! But pardon me, most 
excellent Prince, for as if I should commend unto your 
Excellency the beauty of some excellent Lady, I could not 
so well express it with relation, as if I shewed you her 
])icture ; so I esteem the best way to commend a virtuous 
government, to describe and make appear what it is ; but 
my pencil perhaps disgraceth it: therefore I leave it to* 
your Excellency, to take the picture out of your wise ob- 
servation, and then to double it, and express it in your 
government. ' ' 

The Sixth Councellor, regarding Pass-times and Sports. 
"When I heard, most excellent Prince, the three first 

of my Lords so careful to continue your fame and mem- 
ory, methought it was as if a man should come to some 
young Prince, as yourself is; and immediately after his 
coronation, be in hand with him to make himself a sump- 
tuous and stately tomb. And, to speak out of my soul,, 
I muse how any of your servants can once endure to* 
think of you as of a Prince past. And for my other 
Lords, who would engage you so deeply in matters of 
State; the one perswading you to a more absolute, the 
other to a more gracious Government ; I assure your Ex- 

53 



cellency, their lessons were so cumbersome, as if they 
would make you a King in a Play ; who when one would 
think he standeth in great majesty and felicity, he is 
troubled to say his part. What? nothing but tasks'? 
nothing but working-days? No feasting, no music, no 
dancing, no triumphs, no comedies, no love, no ladies? 
Let other men's lives be as pilgrimages, because they 
are tied to divers necessities and duties; but Princes' 
lives are as Progresses, dedicated onlj^ to variety and 
solace. And if your Excellency should take your barge 
in a summer evening, or your horse or chariot, to take 
the air ; and if you should do any the honour to visit him ; 
yet your pleasure is the principal, and that is but as it 
falleth out. So if any of these matters which have been 
spoken of, fall out in the way of your pleasure, it may be 
taken ; but no otherwise. And therefore, leave your wars 
to your Lieutenants, and your works and buildings to 
your Surveyors, and your books to your Universities, and 
your State-matters to your Counsellors, and attend you 
that in person which you cannot execute by deputy: use 
the advantage of your youth, be not sullen to your for- 
tune ; make your pleasure the distinction of your honours, 
the studies of your favourites, the talk of your people, 
and the allurement of all foreign gallants to your Court. 
And, in a word, sweet Sovereign, dismiss your five Coun- 
sellors, and only take Council of your five senses." 

"But if a man should follow your five senses (said the 
Prince) I perceive he might follow your Lordship, now 
and then, into an inconvenience. Your Lordship is a man 
of a very lively and pleasant advice; which though one 
should not be forward to follow, yet it fitteth the time, and 
what our own humour inclined oftentimes to, delight and 
merriment. For a Prince should be of a chearful and 
pleasant spirit; not austere, hard-fronted, and stoical; 

54 



but, after serious affairs, admitting recreation, and using 
pleasures, as sauces for meats of better nourishment." 

The Prince's Answer and Conclusion to the Speeches of 
the Counsellors. 
''My Lords. 
"We thank you for your good opinions; which have 
been so well set forth, as we should think ourselves not 
capable of good council, if, in so great variety of per- 
swading reasons, we should suddenly resolve. Mean 
while, it shall not be amiss to make choice of the last, and 
upon more deliberation to determine of the rest ; and what 
time we spent in long consulting, in the end we will gain 
by prompt and speedy executing. ' ' 

The Prince, having ended his Speech, arose from his 
seat, and took that occasion of revelling: so he made 
choice of a lady to dance withal ; so likewise did the Lord 
Ambassador, the Pensioners and Courtiers attending the 
Prince. The rest of that night was passed in those pass- 
times. The performance of which night's work being very 
carefully and orderly handled, did so delight and please 
the Nobles and the other auditory, that thereby Gray's- 
Inn did not only recover their lost credit, and quite take 
away all the disgrace that the former night of Errors 
had incurred; but got, instead thereof, so great honour 
and applause, as either the good reports of our honour- 
able friends that were present could yield or we ourselves 
desire. 

The next day the Prince, accompanied with the Ambas- 
sador of Templaria, and attended by both trains, took his 
Progress from his Court of Gray a, to the Lord Mayor's^ 
house, called Crosby's Place, in Bishopsgate-street ; as 
being, before that time, invited to dine with him. This 



^Sir John Spencer. 

55 



shew was very stately, and orderly performed ; the Prince- 
being mounted upon a rich foot-cloth, the Ambassador 
likewise riding near him; the Gentlemen attending, with 
the Prince's officers, and the Ambassador's favourites, 
before ; and the other coming behind the Prince ; as he set 
it down, in the general marshalling in the beginning. 
Every one had his feather in his cap, to distinguish of 
whether State he was; the Grayans using a white, and 
the Templarians using ash-coloured feathers; to the num- 
ber of fourscore in all, very well appointed, and provided 
of great horses and foot-cloths, according to their places. 
Thus they rode very gallantly, from Gray's-Inn, through 
Chancery-lane, Fleet-street, so through Cheapside, Corn- 
hill, and to Crosby' s-Placc in Bishopsgate-street ; where 
was a very sumptuous and costly dinner for the Prince,, 
and all his Attendants, with variety of musick, and all 
good entertainment. Dinner being ended, the Prince and 
his company having revelled a-while, returned again the 
same way, and in the same order as he went thither, the 
streets being thronged and filled with people, to see the 
Gentlemen as they passed by ; who thought there had been 
some great Prince, in very deed, passing through the 
City. So this popular shew through the streets pleased 
the Lord Mayor and his Commonalty so well, as the great 
Lords, and others of good condition and civility, were 
contented with our former proceedings. 

Shortly after this shew, there came letters to our State 
from Frederick T emplarius ; wherein he desired, that his 
Ambassador might be dispatched with answer to those 
things which he came to treat of. So he was very hon- 
ourably dismissed, and accompanied homeward with the 
Nobles of Purpoole: which departure was before the next 
grand day. The next grand night was upon Twelfth-day 
at night; at which time the wonted honourable and wor- 
se 



shipful comi3auy of Lords, Ladies, and Kuigiits, were, as 
at otlier times, assembled ; and every one of them placed 
conveniently, according to their condition. And when 
the Prince was ascended his chair of State, and the 
trumpet sounded, there was presently a shew which con- 
cerned his Highness 's State and Government: the inven- 
tion was taken out of the Prince's arms, as they are blaz- 
oned in the beginning of his reign, by the King at Arms. 
First, there came six Knights of the Helmet, with three 
that they led as prisoners, and were attired like monsters 
and miscreants. The Knights gave the Prince to under- 
stand, that as they were returning from their adventures 
out of Russia, wherein they aided the Emperor of Russia, 
against the Tartars, they surprized these three persons,, 
which were conspiring against his Highness and his dig- 
nity and that being apprehended by them, they could not 
urge them to disclose what they were : by which they rest- 
ing very doubtful, there entered in the two goddesses 
Virtues and Amity; and they said, that they would dis- 
close to the Prince who these suspected persons were : and 
thereupon shewed, that they were Envy, Male-content, 
and Folly: which three had much misliked his Highness 's- 
proceedings, and had attempted many things against his. 
State ; and, but for them two, Virtue and United Friend- 
ship, all their inventions had been disappointed. Then 
willed they the Knights to depart, and to carry away the 
offenders; and that they themselves should come in more 
pleasing sort, and better befitting the present. So the 
Knights departed, and Virtue and Amity promised that 
they two would support his Excellency against all his 
foes whatsoever, and then departed with most pleasant 
musick. After their departure, entered the six Knights 
in a very stately mask, and danced a new devised meas- 
ure ; and after that, they took to them Ladies and Gentle- 

57 



women, and danced with them their galliards, and so de- 
parted with musick. Which being done, the trumpets 
were commanded to sound, and then the King at Arms 
came in before the Prince, and told his Honour, that here 
was arrived an Ambassador from the mighty Emperor 
of Russia and Muscovy, that had some matters of weight 
to make known to his Highness. So the Prince willed that 
he should be admitted into his presence; who came in 
attire of Russia, accompanied with two of his own coun- 
try in like habit. When they were come in presence of 
the Prince, the Ambassador made his obeysance, and took 
out Letters of Credence, and humbly delivered them to 
the Prince, who gave them to the King at Arms, to be 
read publicly, as followeth: 

To the most High and Mighty HENRY, Prince of 
Purpoole. 

^'Theodore Evamvhicli, the great and mighty Emperor 
of all Russia, Valderomia, Muscovia, and Novogordia; 
King of Rafan, and of Astrahan; Lord of Plescoe and 
Sinelescoe; Prince of Tnaria, Sogoria, Perma, Vachekey, 
and Bolgaria; Lord and Great Duke of Valhadha, Nor- 
gordia in the country of Cherenega; and also of Rescod, 
Polotzkoe, Ogdor, and Belesor; sole Prince of Lothehey, 
Rostow, Geroslave, the white lake Liselrund, Oivdoria, 
Condencia, and Fludoria; Great Ruler and Commander 
of Siberia, and of all the North-side; and Lord Governor 
of many other Countries and Provinces. To the most 
mighty, and glorious renowned Henry, Prince of Pur- 
poole, Archduke of Staptdia and Bernardia, Duke of High 
and Nether Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles's and Totten- 
ham, Count Palatine of Bloomsbury and Clerkenivell, 
Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington, Kentish Toivn, 
Paddington, and Knightsbridge, Knight of the most hero- 

58 



ical Order of the Helmet, and Sovereign of tlie same; all 
health and glorious renown. We have thought good, most 
invincible Prince, upon some accidents of importance hap- 
pened to our State, wherein the worthiness of some of 
your subjects remaining here have increased your fame, 
to dispatch to your Highness our most faithful Counsellor 
Faman Bega, to intreat with you, in our name, of cer- 
tain important affairs : which, though we must confess, do 
concern us in policy, to have an effectual regard unto ; 
yet withal, they are such as may minister occasion to 
your Highness to add beams of honour to your praise 
and glory, which hath already, in a manner, equalled the 
light of Heaven in brightness, which is seen throughout 
the whole world. We refer you herein for the particulars 
to such instructions as we have, under our own hand, de- 
livered to this our present Ambassador: wherein, as also 
in any other points whereof he shall treat with your 
Highness, in our name and affairs, we pray your sacred 
Majesty to give credit to him, as if ourself were present, 
and treated with you in person. And so we wish to your 
Excellency all happiness answerable to your peerless vir- 
tue. 
Dated at our Imperial City of Mosco.^' 

When the King at Arms had read this Letter, the 
Ambassador made this Speech to the Prince: 

''Most Excellent Prince, 
"Fame seemed to the Emperor, my Sovereign, to do 
your Highness right, by filling the world with the re- 
nown of your Princely virtues, and valour of your brave 
Court; till of late, the gallant behaviour and heroical 
prowess of divers your Knights of the Helmet, whom the 
good fortune of Russia, addressed to your cold climate, 
discovered that Fame to be either envious in suppressing 



a g^i^eat part of your valour, or unable to set forth so 
admirable virtues to their full merits; for by these five 
Knights (whose greatest vaunts were, that they were 
your Excellency's servants) an exceeding number of 
Bigarian Tartars, whose vagabond inroads, and inhu- 
mane fierceness infested his borders, captivated his 
people, burnt his cities, and spoiled whole provinces, was, 
by a most wonderful victory, repulsed, and beaten back. 
And withal, by their brave conduct, they surprised an- 
other army of Negro Tartars; whose wretched devices 
ceased not to work the confusion and combustion of our 
whole country, and diverted their barbarous cruelty 
where it might do us most damage. These same worthy 
Knights, before they could receive that honour where- 
with my Sovereign intended to adorn their virtues, did 
withdraw themselves, and are retired, as his Majesty is 
infoTmed, to your Court. Whereupon, he sent me, partly 
to congratulate your happiness, who deserve to command 
over such a number of gallant Gentlemen ; but especially 
to conjure your Excellency (according to the ancient 
league and amity continued betwixt you) that you would 
send him these six Knights, accompanied with an hundred 
■other of the some Order, for he doubteth not, but, by 
their virtues,, accompanied and attended with his own 
forces, who are, in lai'geness of dominion, and number of 
people, and all other warlike furniture and provision, 
inferior to no earthly potentate, that these runagate Tar- 
t€irs shall be again confined to their deserts, with their 
memorable slaughter, and your common glory and profit : 
common indeed, both to your Highness and him; inas- 
mucli as his Imperial Majesty, contented only with secur- 
ity and assurance of his people and borders, will permit 
all those large territories and bateable grounds, which 
now serve those vermine for pasturage, be sorted into 



vseveral governments, and strengthened with forts and 
■castles by your direction, to be iiolden of your Excel- 
lency, as commendations by the Knights of special virtue 
^nd" merit of your Order. So shall you, with honourable 
commodity, have a perpetual exercise of your virtues, 
become a bulwark of Christendom, and by raising con- 
tinual trophies of strengthened Tartars, keep the glory 
of your virtue in everlasting flourish. My Sovereign, 
iiot doubting but that your resolution will be conformable 
to your magnanimous virtue, and his honourable demand, 
charged me only to solicit expedition, such as the neces- 
sity of his people and country doth require. In the mean 
time, he hath sent your Excellency, for a present, a ship 
laden with divers of the best and fairest fruits, and other 
richest commodities of our country; not so much, by 
gifts to draw on your speedy help, to which he knoweth 
the truth and justice of the case will be a spur sufficient ; 
or for comi3lement of an ordinary and seldom omitted 
companion of grea:t Embassies ; but rather for a seal and 
testimony of the exceeding honour that he beareth to 
your matchless vertue, and the great love he beareth to 
your incomparable person. The present is at your next- 
haven, ready to be offered to your sacred hands at your 
convenient leisure; together with some small .gifts sent to 
those valiant Knights, wrose highly deserving virtues 
my S'overeign meaneth, at their long expected return to 
his Court, to crown with a garland more worthy his 



The Answer of the Prince to the former Speech. 
"Eussia Lord, 

''The Emperor, your Master, is happy in having so 
honourable a Gentlemen as yourself to do him service. 
He shall well perceive, that there is nothing in the world 



more acceptable to ns, than the friendship of a Prince 
so mighty and ilhistrious. We account amongst our 
greatest happinesses this honourable embassage. His 
presents are so large and bountiful, as we have right 
good occasion to hold him the most free and magnificent 
Prince in the world. We joy to hear of his hardy ven- 
tures, that by our Knights in those parts have been 
atchieved. They may be glad that our worthy Brother 
invited them to so high an enterprize, wherein they may 
do themselves honour, and his greatness service. Rest 
and refresh your Lordship this present, for now we bid 
you welcome: assure yourself your request is already 
granted, and that in far greater measure than you ex- 
pected or desired." 

When the Prince had thus spoken, the Ambassador 
was placed in a chair near the Prince; and then was 
served up a running banquet, for the Prince and the 
Lords present, and the rest, with variety of music. 

Whilst these things were thus a-doing, there came a 
post-boy with letters of intelligence concerning the state, 
from divers parts of his Highness 's provinces, and deliv- 
ered them to the Secretary; who made the Prince ac- 
quainted therewith, and caused them to be read openly 
and publicly. 

A Letter of Advertisement from Knightsh ridge, to the 
Honourable Council. 

^'I beseech your Honours to advertise his Highness^ 
that in his Excellency's Canton of Knightshridge, there 
do haunt certain foreigners, that seize upon all passen- 
gers, taking from them by force their goods, under pre- 
tence, that, being merchant strangers, and using traffic 
into his Highness 's territories of Clerkenwell, Islington,. 
and elsewhere, they have been robbed of their goods, 

62 



■spoiled of their wares; whereby they were utterly un- 
done: and that his Honour, of his good will, hath been 
pleased to grant them Letters of Reprisal, to recover 
their loss of them that come next to their hands: by 
colour whereof, they lay hold of all that pass by, without 
respect. Some of their names, as I understand, are, 
Johannes Shaghag, Rohertus Untruss, James Rapax, 
alias Capax. There do reign likewise thereabouts an- 
other sort of dangerous people, under the name of Poor 
Soldiers, that say they were maimed, and lost their 
limbs in his Honour's service and wars against the Ama- 
zons; and they pretend to have pass-ports from their 
Captains. Some of them, say, they have served under 
Sir Robert Kemp and Sir William Cooke; others under 
William Knaplocks, Lord Marshall, Sir Francis Marham, 
Captain Crymes, Captain Conny, Yelverton, Hugan, Sir 
Francis Davison, and some other of good place. Some 
say, that they were maimed with fire-locks ; others, in the 
trenches ; others in going with their captains to discover 
ambuscadoes of the enemy, and to view the forts ; others, 
in standing sentry, whilst the captains were busied in 
entering the breach; others, in the very approach at the 
first. But the number of them is great, and the same 
inclined to do much mischief. Another sort there is, that 
pretend that they have protections to beg, in regard of 
their losses by shipwreck upon certain rocks of hazard, 
barred quarter-trays, high-men, and low-men, bom-cards, 
the sands of bowle-allies, the shelf of new-cut, the gulf of 
myne and gill, and such other like places of peril. Some 
of them are called by the names of Harry Ordinary, Jack 
Moneyless, Will Cog-all, and Roger Spend-all. These 
aforesaid people do gather together in great numbers; 
and his Excellency's subjects hereabouts stand in great 
fear of outrages by them to be committed, except his 



Highness do prevent the same, and that speedily, by 
sending some of the Captains aforesaid to disperse them. 

"Your Honour's at command, 

''HENRY BROWNBILL. 

''From Knightshridge, Jan. 5, 1594-5." 

Another Letter from Sea, directed to the Lord Ad- 
miral. 
"By my letters given at Pont-Holhorn, the last of 
December, I gave your Honour to understand, that his 
Excellency's merchants of Purpoole began to surcease 
their traffick to Clerkenivell, Neivington and Bank-side, 
and such like roads of charge and discharge, because they 
feared lest certain rovers, which lay hovering about the 
Narrow Seas, should intercept them in their voyages; 
since which time, may it please your Honour, I have 
discovered an huge Armado of French Amazons, to the 
number of seven hundred caracts, galeasses, great galeas- 
ses, and tall ships; besides pinnaces, frigots, carvels, 
shallops, and such small vessels innumerable ; which being 
dispersed into sundry creeks, work daily much damage to 
all sorts of people, and adventurers hold in durance ; not 
suffering one man to escape, till he have turned French. 
Divers ensigns, standards, pendants, tilting-staves, short 
trunchiors for the principal officers, and such like pro- 
vision for his Excellency's triumphs, they have cast 
overboard; for no other cause, save that his subjects 
were bound inward from Gelderland, a nation that they 
have always hated ; besides that, they exact so unreason- 
ably of those that trade into Netherland, that they leave, 
them neither lands, goods, nor good wares. Also they 
sink all those that use any dealings with the people of 
Cleive, without respect, whether he be merchant or man 
of war. To conclude, they burn all those vessels that 

64 



transport any dry wares into the Low Countries. 
Moreover, I am to advertise your Honour, tliat, on the 
9th day of January, in the Straits of the Gulf of Clerken- 
wetl, there was a hot skirmish between a merchant of 
St. Giles, called Amarpso, and the Admiral of the Ama- 
zons, called the Rowse-flower, wherein the merchant hav- 
ing gained the wind, came up with her in such close man- 
ner, that he brake his bolt-sprite in her hinder quarter; 
yet notwithstanding, the fight continued fiercely on either 
part two long hours and more ; in which time our gunner^ 
being a very expert soldier, shot her four or five times 
under water : then the merchant, perceiving his powder to 
be spent, was inforced to grapple; and so, with great 
resolution, laid her a-board on the waste, which he found 
stoutly defended by the French; yet, at length, being 
driven from their close fight, they were constrained to 
keep under hatches, where one of the soldiers entring, 
spied fire in the gun-room ; notwithstanding, he descended 
very desperately. Then the admiral, seeing no hope to 
escape, fired her powder, and burnt herself, the soldiers, 
and the ship, which, as I after learned, was of an incom- 
parable burden; insomuch, that she had been known to 
have borne nine hundred fighting men in her poop. Her 
chief lading was cochenella, musk, guaiacum, tabaco, and 
Le grand Vesolle. The chief of account that were blown 
up, were Catharina Dardana, Pecta de Lee, and Maria de 
Rotulis. The rich Carrick of Neivington, coming to 
rescue their admiral, were so close at fight when she was 
fired, that the flame of the wild-fire caught hold of their 
captain's inner cabbin: and had not one Barbara de Chir- 
urgia been ready with his syringe, to have cast on water, 
milk, lotium, and such hke cooling liquors, and there 
quenched the wild-fire- betimes, they had been both, 
doubtless, consumed to ashes ; but, by his care and com- 



ing, they are both escaped alive, though shrewdly 
scorched, and are taken prisoners. The whole number 
of them that perished in this hot conflict, is five hundred 
fifty-five; and prisoners ninety-nine. Our ship had no 
other hurt, save that she sprang her main-mast in such 
sort, as that she is not able to bear any high sail. Thus 
having advertised your Honour of every particular acci- 
dent which I could learn, I am humbly to desire your 
Lordship to acquaint his Excellency and his Privy Coun- 
cil herewith; that such speedy order may be taken 
therein, as seemeth to their wisdoms most convenient. 
And so, with all duty, I kiss your hands. 
''Your Honour's servants, 

JOHN PUTTANEMICO. 
''From the Harbour of Bridewell, the 10th of Janu- 
ary, 1594." 

There were also read like letters from Stapulia and 
Bernardia, of intelligences, and also from Low Holborn; 
wherein were set forth the plots of rebellion and insur- 
rection, that those his Excellency's subjects had devised 
against his Highness and State, and some other occur- 
rences in those parts of his Highness 's dominions. And 
when they were read, the Prince made this Speech fol- 
lowing : 

"These suddain accidents (Lords) would make a 
Prince of little spirit suspect himself to be unfortunate. 
The Stapulian fallen away; the Bernardian holds out! 
News of tumults, treasons, conspiracies, commotions, 
treacheries, insurrections! Say our lands were sacked, 
our wealth spoiled, our friends slain, ourself forsaken, 
vanquished, captivated, and all the evils that might be 
were fallen upon us; yet could there be nothing so ad- 
verse, but that our fortitude and heigh tli of courage were 



able to over-work. These events are not matters of 
moment, or of substance of our government : these are not 
misfortunes, but Fortune's jests, that gives them she loves 
not shews of good luck, that in the end she may do them 
greater spight ; but, when she meaneth good, she prepares 
men with some little bitterness, that her good turns, when 
they come, may seem more pleasant and delightful. 
These events proceed of error in our former government, 
who should not have put great men, well loved or popular, 
into so great places of sovereignty; nor one man should 
possess so great a place, of so great command; by too 
much authority and greatness, a right good mind is 
oftentimes corrupted; in this late, we rather allow a 
severe man, somewhat hated: for better were a little 
l^rofitable civil dissention, than a league and love that 
were likely to prove dangerous. Lords, you shall find 
it an harder matter to keep things once gotten, than at 
the first to obtain it. Hitherto no Prince in this world 
hath had better success than ourself. Men say, that 
sovereignty is uncertain, and an ill security; subject to 
cares, troubles, envy, treacheries, hate, fear, distrust; we 
have hitherto found none of those. That a Prince hath 
no sure friend, no faithful servant, no safe place, no 
quiet hour, no secure pleasure; all these have we, and 
more, in great abundance; and these things, which to 
other Princes have been the occasions of mishaps, have 
been to us the very instruments of pleasure, and much 
service. What Prince ever found in his subjects, in mat- 
ters of weight, more love, more loyalty, more readiness, 
more service? When we have been inclined to solace, 
what liveliness, what alacrity, what ingenious devices, 
sports, jollities, what variety of pleasure! How have 
we been honoured with the presents of divers Princes, 
Lords, and men of great worth; who, confident in our 

67 



love, without fear or distrust, have come to visit us ; by 
whose honourable kindness, we are to them for ever 
devinct, and most firmly bounden: How hath the fav- 
ourable regard, and bright eyes of brave ladies shined 
upon our endeavors, which to their honours and service 
have been ever intended ! How have we been gratulated 
with divers Ambassadors from divers Nations! What 
concourse of all people hath been continually at our 
Court, to behold our magnificence! Shall small matters 
therefore daunt us? Shall a few tumultuary disorders 
dismay us? Shall ill-guided insurrections trouble us, 
that are, like mushrooms, sprung up in a night, and rot- 
ten before the morning! We are loath to believe that 
there be such sparks of dissention and mischief: but, if 
there be, we will make haste to quench them, before they 
grow into violent flames; for it is no longer consulting, 
where a man cannot commend the counsel before he hath 
seen the effect. Nor shall it require the presence of a 
Prince to settle these small commotions. Lords, we send 
you to these places where need is; and, as occasion 
serveth, we will take order that garrisons be planted, 
citadels erected, and whatsoever else be performed, that 
shall be convenient to subject and bring under these 
unsettled provinces. Ourself, with Our chosen Knights, 
with an army Royal, will make towards Our Brother of 
Russia, with my Lord here, his Ambassador, presently 
to join with him against his enemies, the Negarian Tar- 
tars; more dreadful, the Barbarian Tartars; And if For- 
tune will not grace Our good attempt, as I am rightful 
Prince, and true Sovereign of the honourable Order of 
the Helmet, and by all those Ladies whom, in Knightly 
honour I love and serve, I will make the name of a Gray- 
an Knight more dreadful to the Barbarian Tartars, than 
the Macedonian to the wearied Persians, the Roman to 



the dispersed Britains, or the Castalian to the weakened 
Indians. Gentle Ladies, be now benign and gracious to 
your Knights, that never pleased themselves but when 
their service pleased you; that for j^our sakes shall un- 
dertake hard adventures, that will make your names and 
beauties most famous, even in foreign regions. Let 
your favour kindle the vigour of their spirits, wherewith 
they abound ; for they are the men by whom your fame, 
your honour, your virtue, shall be for ever advanced, 
protected and admired." 

When the Prince had concluded, for his farewell he 
took a lady to dance withal, and so did the rest of tlie 
Knights and Courtiers; and after some time spent in 
revelling, the Prince took his way to his lodging, and so 
the company dissolved, and made an end of this night's 
work. 

On the next morning his Highness took his journey 
towards Russia, with the Ambassador, and there he re- 
mained until Candelmas; at which time, after his glor- 
ious conquests abroad, his Excellency returned home 
again ; in which the purpose of the Gentlemen was much 
disappointed by the Readers and Ancients of the House, 
by reason of the Term: so that very good inventions, 
which were to be performed in public at his entertain- 
ment into the house again, and two grand nights which 
were intended at his triumphal return, wherewith his 
reign had been conceitedly determined, were by the afore- 
said Readers and Governors made frustrate, for the want 
of room in the hall, the scaffolds being taken away, and 
forbidden to be built up again (as would have been nec- 
essary for the good discharge of such a matter) thought 
convenient; but it shewed rather what was performed, 
than intended. Briefly, it was as foUoweth: 

69 



Upon the 28tli of January, tlie hall being sate at dinner, 
with Eeaders, and all the rest of the House, suddainly 
sounded a trumpet; which being thrice done, there 
entered the King at Arms, and, in the midst of them, said 
as followeth: 

''On the behalf of my Sovereign Lord, Sir HENRY, 
the Right Excellent and all-conquering Prince of Pur- 
poole, Archduke of Stapula and Bernardia, Duke of High 
and Nether Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles's and Totten- 
ham, Count Palatine of Bloomshury and Clerkenivell. 
Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington, Kentish Town, 
Paddington and Knightsh ridge. Knight of the most 
heroical Order of the Helmet, and Sovereign of the same ; 
I, his Excellency's King at Arms, dispatched from his 
royal navy, triumphantly returning from his glorious 
conquests of the Negarian Tartars, do, in his High- 
ness 's name, command all his officers. Knights and 
Pensioners, to give their attendance to his Highness 's 
person, at his port of Black-wallia, on the 1st of Febru- 
ary. And his Highness hath further commanded me to 
give notice to all his servants within his dominions, of 
whatsoever condition, that they be ready to perform all 
offices of obedience and subjection, as well becometh their 
loyalty to so gracious a Sovereign." 

When this news of the Prince's return out of Russia 
was thus sent abroad, and that it was known that his 
Highness was to come by Greenwich, where the Court 
then lay, it was given the Gentlemen to understand, that 
her Majesty did expect, that in passing by, our Prince 
should land, and do his homage; the rather because, in 
Christmas, there was great expectation of his coming 
thither, to present her Majesty with some pass-time, and 
none performed. Whereupon it was determined, that, in 



passing by, there should be a letter directed to Sir 
Thomas Heneage, our honourable good friend, that he 
should excuse us for that time ; which letter is hereafter 
set down. 

Upon the 1st of February, the Prince and his train 
were met at Blackwall; from whence they came up the 
river of Thames, in a very gallant shew. Being come 
so near his own country, he left his navy of ships, as not 
fit for so short a cut, and the matter not being very great, 
or dangerous; and he and his retinue took to them fif- 
teen barges, bravely furnished with standards, pendants,, 
flags, and streamers ; there was also in every barge music 
and trumpets; and in some ordnance and shot. Being 
thus gallantly appointed, we came on our way by the 
Stairs at Greenwich, where the ordnance was shot off,. 
and the whole navy made a sail round about; and the 
second time, when the Admiral, in which the Prince was,, 
came directly before the Court Stairs, his Highness dis- 
patched two Gentlemen with letters to the Right Honour- 
able Sir Thomas Heneage. The copy whereof follow- 
eth: 

''Henry Prince of Purpoole to the Right Honourable Sir 
Thomas Heneage. 

"Most Honourable Knight, 
'^I have now accomplished a most tedious and haz- 
ardous journey, though very honourable, into Russia; 
and returning within the view of the Court of your re- 
nowned Queen, my gracious Sovereign, to whom I ac- 
knowledge homage and service, I thought good, in pass- 
ing by, to kiss her sacred hands, as a tender of the zeal 
and duty I owe unto her Majesty; but, in making the 
offer, I found my desire was greater than the ability of 
my body; which, by length of my journey, and my sick- 

71 



ness at sea, is so weakened, as it were very dangerous 
for me to adventure it. Therefore, most honourable 
friend, let me intreat you to make my humble excuse to 
her Majesty for this present: and to certifie her High- 
ness, that 1 do hope, by the assistance of the Di\dne Prov- 
idence, to recover my former strength about Shrovetide ; 
at which time I intend to repair to her Majesty's Court 
(if it may stand with her gracious pleasure) to otfer my 
service, and relate the success of my journey. And so 
praying your Honour to return me her Majesty's answer, 
I wish you all honour and happiness. 

"Dated from ship-board, at our Ark of Vanity, the 
1st of February 1594." 

The letter being delivered, and her Majesty made ac- 
quainted with the contents, her gracious answer was: 
"That if the letter had not excused his passing by, he 
should have done homage before he had gone away, al- 
though he had been a greater Prince than he was : yet, ' ' 
she said, "she liked well his gallant shews, that were 
made at his triumphant return." And "her Highness 
added further. "That if he should come at Shrovetide, 
he and his followers should have entertainment accord- 
ing to his dignity." And the messenger returned an- 
swer. 

The Prince and his company continued their course 
until they came to the Tower; where, by her Majesty's 
commandment, he was welcomed with a volley of great 
ordnance, by the Lieutenant of the Tower. At the Tow- 
er-hill there waited for the Prince's landing, men at- 
tending with horses, very gallantly appointed, for all the 
company, to the number of one hundred; the most of 
them being great horses, and the rest very choice geld- 
ings ; and all very bravely furnished with all things nec- 

72 



essary. So tlie Prince being mounted, and liis company 
in order, as before set down, every man according to his 
office, with the ensign thereof, they rode very gallantly 
through Tower Street, Fenchurch Street, Gracechurch 
Street, Cornhill, Cheapside, and so through St. Paul's 
Church Yard; where, at St. Paul's school, his Highness 
was entertained with an oration, made by one of the 
scholars of that school; the copy whereof followeth: 

"HENRICO, Illustrissimo & Potentissimo Pin- 
poolae Principi, Archi-duci Stapuliae S Bernardiae. 
Superioris & Inferioris Holborn Duci, Sancti Aegldii S 
Tottenham Marchioni, de Clerkenwell & Bloomsbury 
Comiti Palatino, Domino magno Cantonum de Islington, 
KentisJitown, Paddington, & Knightshridge, Heroici Or- 
dinis Galeolae Equiti Aurato, & ejusclem Domino Seren- 
issimo. 

"Importunum fortasse fuerit {Purpooliensis Prin- 
ceps Serenissime) apud tantam Majestatem tuam tarn 
intempestivo tempore perorare. Vix enim sperare ausus 
sum, velle te, qui tantam personam sustines tuumque 
hunc comitatum vere Aulicum, post victorias partas terra 
marique maximas, ad vocem puerilem in media instruct- 
issimi triumphi solemnitate consistere. Verum per af- 
fibilitatem in summis principibus semper laudatissimam, 
liceat mihi prfetereunti celsitudini tuae musarum nostra- 
rum benevolentiam offerre, & gratulationem hanc meam 
qualemcunque post tam illustrem tuum & triumphant- 
em, ac per totum orbem divulgatum e Russia reditum, hac 
mea oratione Generosis omnibus testatum relinquere. 
Quamvis enim subito nobis excidat, & ad tantam Majes- 
tatem quasi obstupescat oratio, gratulatio tamen quae 
magis sit offerri, quaeque sit officii & amoris erga virtutes 
Generosas plenior afferri certe quidem non potest. 

73 



Nonne vides civitatem ipsam quasi sedibus siiis convul- 
sam ad congratulandum tanto Principi procedere! Quid 
existimas totum liunc concursum cogitare? In cujus ora 
vultusque horum omnium oculos conjectos putas? Quem 
sensum reddis amicorum nostrorum? Quid cupimusT 
Quid optamus ? Quid agimus ? Nonne ut tarn voluntates 
nostras testemur, quam victoriis gratulemur tuis 1 Quid 
igitur mirum si schola, etiam nostra virtutum Genero- 
sarum emula, victoriis & triumphis illustrissimis gratu- 
lari gestiati Perge igitur, & optimis auspiciis perge, 
Clarissime Princeps, ad Purpooliense palatium tuum 
redito, Grayorum oraculum, quo tanquam Delphici Apol- 
linis voce fatidica omnes controversiae dirimuntur. De 
Hispano lioste omnium Principum communi invadendo, 
consulito. Quam facile tuus jam sanguine madens Tar- 
tarorum gladius praesertim, si Templarios tibi antiquo 
foedere conjunctos in belli novi societatem asciscas, alior- 
um omnium & strictos gladios retundet, & clypeos excut- 
ietf Hispani invidia rumpantur ut Ilia Codro. Interim 
vero Mus8B nostras & praeteritis tuis applaudent victoriis,. 
& Palladem suam exorabunt antiquam Grayorum, ut te 
alterum jam Agamemnonem, qui multos liabes Achilles & 
Ulysses Comites tuos, galea sua induat, clypeo protegat^ 
(i'.; liasta (hostibus tuis omnibus fusis profligatisque) in 
perpetuum conservat. ' ' 

The Oration being ended, tlie Prince rewarded the boy 
very bountifully, and thanked them for their good wills, 
and forwardness to shew the same. Then we marched on 
our way, as before, by Ludgate, and through Fleet 
Street; where, as all the way else, the streets were sO' 
thronged and filled with people, that there was left but 
room for the horsemen that were to pass. In this state 
the Prince was conducted to Gray's Inn, where his Ex- 

74 



'cellency was received by a peal of ordnance, and sound 
of trumpets, and all the good entertainment that all his 
loving subjects could make, to shew their love and loyalty 
to his Highness. 

The Prince, being thus received, came, after supper, 
into the hall and there he danced and revelled among the^ 
Nobles, and others of his own Court ; and in like manner 
they spent the day following : but there was no other per- 
formance, by reason of want of the stage and scatfolds, 
till Shrovetide, that they went to the Court : and the things 
that were then performed before her Majesty, were 
rather to discharge our own promise, than to satisfie 
the expectations of others. In that regard, the plot of 
those sports were but small ; the rather, that tediousness 
might be avoided, and confused disorder, a thing which 
might easily happen in a multitude of actions ; the sports 
therefore consisted of a mask, and some speeches that 
were as introductions to it ; as f olloweth : 

The Speakers. 

An Esquire of the Prince's Company attended by a 
Tartarion Page. 

Proteus the Sea-god, attended by two Tritons. 

Thamcsis and Amphitrite, who likewise were at- 
tended by their Sea-nymphs. 

These five were musicians, which sung on the first 
coming on the Stage. 

At the first coming on the Stage, the Nymphs and Tri- 
tons sung this H^Tim following, in praise of Neptune. 



75 



Of Neptune 's empire let us sing, 
At whose command the waves obey, 
To whom rivers tribute pay, 
Down the high mountains sliding: 
To whom the scaly nation yields 
Homage for their chrystal fields. 
Wherein they dwell. 

And every Sea-god praise again. 
Yearly out of his wat'ry cell, 
To deck great Neptune's diadem. 

The Tritons dancing in a ring. 
Before his palace-gates, do make 
The waiters (sic) with their trumpets quake. 
Like the great thunder sounding. 

The Sea-nymphs chaunt their accents shrill. 
And the Syrens taught to kill 
With their sweet voice. 

Make every echoing voice reply 

Unto their gentle mourning noise. 

In praise of Neptune's empery. 

Wliich being ended, the Speakers made their Speeches 
in order as followeth: 



Esquire. 



Proteus, it seems you lead a merry life ; 
Your music follows you where-e'er you go. 
I thought you Sea-gods, as in your abode. 
So in your nature, had not been unlike 
To fishes ; the which, as say philosophers, 
Have so small sense of music's delight, 
As 'tis a doubt not fully yet resolv'd. 
Whether of hearing they have sense or no. 

76 



Proteus. 

'Twas great discourse of reason, to regard 
The dreaming guess of a philosopher, 
That never held his idle buzzing head 
Under the water half an hour's space. 
More than that famous old received history 
Of good Arion, by a dolphin saved. 

Esquire. 

Well, let that pass, and to the purpose now ; 
I thought that you, that are a demy-god, 
Would not have fail'd my expectation thus. 



Proteus. 



Why so, fair 'Squire ? Is not my promise kept 
And duly the appointed time observ'd"? 



Esquire. 

Yes ; and 'tis that in which I rest deceiv'd : 
I rather deem'd, and not without good cause, 
That those still floating regions where you h!oe, 
And th' ever changing nature that you have, 
Nought else but breach of promise, promised. 

Proteus. 

'Twere strange if that my word, which credit keeps, 

In future things, and hidden secrecies, 

Should fondly fail in keeping promise made : 

Fondly indeed, when 'tis for my avail. 

Here are the rocks ; your person, or your prize. 

But tell me, 'Squire; where 's th' appointed place. 

In which we shall these vaunted wonders see? 

77 



Esquire. 

Well may you wonders term them, Proteus : 
For these are wonders that pass human wit: 
These shall surpass thy wit, though half divine. 
But, for to put you out of further doubt. 
This is the place, where all those promises. 
Agreed upon betwixt the Prince and you. 
Shall be perform 'd; and shall be so perform 'd, 
So far beyond your doubting expectation. 
So far beyond his modest declaration. 
And you shall say, thrice happy Proteus ; 
Whose ears unblessed were to bless mine eyes. 

Amphitrite. 

Your fair set speeches make us two amazed. 
But tell us, 'Squire, what be those promises. 
And those agreed covenants'? And whereon 
Did they arise 'twixt Proteus and your Prince? 

Esquire. 

Fair Amphitrite, I will tell you all. 
After the victory at Austrican 
Had made an end of the Tartian war. 
And quite dispers'd our vanquish 'd enemies 
Unto their hords, and huge vast wilderness ; 
Our noble Prince, and his couragious Knights, 
Whose untry'd valour, in the battle fought, 
Was rather warm'd, than fully exercis'd, 
Finding no enterprise that did deserve 
Th' employment of their brave united force, 
After assignment of a day and place, 
Wliere both himself and all his Knights should meet, 
Dispers'd themselves into many sundry quests. 
To seek adventures as they should befal. 
78 



The Prince himself, who only was attended 

By me his 'Squire, had many strange exploits; 

Which, since they shortly shall be put in print, 

Join'd with Prince Arthur's famous chronicle, 

I shall not now need to repeat at large. 

Amongst the rest, when as the time approach 'd, 

That, as it was assign 'd, we should all meet, 

It thus fell out : the Prince one sun-shine day, 

Besting himself within a goodly tuft 

Of tall streight fir-trees that adorn 'd the shore, 

Reading a letter, lately sent to him 

From one of his brave Knights, that did import. 

How he, in token of his duteous love, 

And for a trophy of his victories. 

Had lately sent him a commodity 

Of pigmies, taken in a private conquest. 

Resting and residing; suddainly he espy'd 

Of porpoises a great unusual flock 

Playing and springing in the climbing waves. 

Drawn with this sight still nearer to the shore, 

Mounting a little cliff, he soon discern 'd 

A cave, whose frame seem'd more than natural; 

And viewing near with wary heedful eyes. 

At length he spy'd this fish hard there asleep; 

Whom by his head and haviour he suspected 

To be this Proteus ; as it was indeed. 

Our Prince streight, ready at his Fortune's call. 

With easie stealing steps drew near to him : 

And being near, with great agility. 

Seized suddainly upon this demy-god. 

He thus surpris'd, resorted presently 

To his familiar arts, and turning tricks. 

My Lord, like to a skilful Falconer, 

Continu'd still to keep his fast'ned hold. 

79 



Thamesis. 

The story of those oft transformed shapes, 
I long to hear from you that present were, 
And an eye-witness of that strange conflict. 



Esquire. 



And shall fair Thamesis know then, that Proteus, 

Viewing the gallant shape and budding youth 

Of my brave Lord, the form that first he took, 

Was of a goodly Lady, passing fair; 

Hoping, belike, that whilst he us'd respect 

Due to her matchless beauty, and her sex. 

Himself being now unloos'd, mightli slide away: 

But finding him that knew his wily shifts. 

Embrace him straiter in that feigned shape, 

Next, to a Serpent he transform 'd himself. 

With fiery eyes, and dreadful blackish scales, 

And three-fork 'd hissing tongue, that might affright 

Th' undaunted Master of dread Cerberus; 

Pressing with double strength his scaled crest; 

Wherewith the Prince, rather enrag'd than fear'd. 

Made him betake him to another form ; 

Which was, a sumptuous Casket, richly wrought, 

Whereout, when it open'd, many diadems, 

And rubies of inestimable worth. 

Seemed by chance to drop into the sea. 

This working nought but scorn, and high disdain. 

He lastly shew'd him a sad spectacle. 

Which was, the North-east of his valiant Knights. 

And best beloved of my Lord, the Prince, 

Mangled and prick 'd with many a grisly wound. 

Welt 'ring their valiant limbs in purple goar. 

Gasping, and closing their faint dying eyes. 

80 



This with the Prince, now us'd to his delusions 

Prevail'd no more, than aid the rest before. 

When Proteus then had chang'd his changing weed, 

And fix'd himself in his own wonted shape, 

Seeing no other means could ought prevail, 

He ransom profer'd for his liberty. 

And first of all, he offer 'd to aread 

To him, and unto all his Knights, Fortune's spell. 

But when my Lord reply 'd, that that was fit 

For unresolved cowards to obtain ; 

And how his Fortune's often changing play, 

Would lose the pleasure of his chief delight, 

If the catastrophe should be before known : 

Then offer 'd he huge treasures, Ladies' Loves, 

Honour and Fame, and famous Victories. 

My Lord made answer, ' ' That he never would 

Offer his honour so great wrong, to take. 

By gift or magic, without sweat or pain. 

Labour or danger. Virtue's truest prize, 

That which by mortal hand might be atchiev'd; 

And therefore willed him, as demy-god. 

To offer somewhat that might be above 

The lowly compass of an human power." 

When Proteus saw the Prince could make his match. 

He told him then, that under th' Artie Pole 

The Adamantine Eock, the Sea's true Star 

Was situate ; which, by his power divine. 

He, for this ransom, would remove, and plant 

Whereas he should appoint : assuring him. 

That the wild empire of the Ocean 

(If his fore-telling spirit fail'd him not) 

Should follow that, wher e'er it should be set. 

But then again, he added this condition. 

Which, as he thought, would no way be perform 'd; 

81 



That first the Prince should bring him to a Power. 
Which in attractive virtue should surpass 
The wondrous force of his Iron-drawing rocks. 
My Lord, that knew himself as well assured, 
As Proteus thought his own match surely made. 
Easily yielded to his covenant; 
And promis'd further, on his Princely word, 
That he himself, and seven of his Knights, 
Wou'd enter hostages into the rock, 
Which should be brought to the appointed place, 
Till this great Covenant should be perform 'd. 
Which now rests to be done. Now, Proteus, 
Since 'tis a Question of comparison. 
Blazon you forth the virtue of your rock 

Proteus. 

What needeth words, when great effects proclaim 

Th' attractive virtue of th' Adamantine Rocks, 

AVhich forceth iron, which all things else commands. 

Iron, of metals Prince by ancient right ; 

Though factious men in vain conspire to seat 

Rebellious Gold in his usurped throne. 

Thus, sundry metals, of such strength and use 

(Disjoin'd by distance o' th' whole hemisphere) 

Continually, with trembling aspect. 

True subject-like, eyes his dread Sovereign. 

Thus hath this Load-stone, by his powerful touch, 

Made the iron-needle. Load-star of the World, 

A Mercury, to paint the gayest way 

In Wat'ry Wilderness, and Desert Sands; 

In confidence whereof, the assured Mariner 

Doth not importune Jove, Sun, or Star. 

By his attractive force, was drawn to light. 

From depth of ignorance, that new found world. 



Whose golden mines Iron found out and conquered 
These be the virues, and extend so far, 
Which you do take to counterpraise. 

Esquire. 

Proteus, the seas have taught your speech to swell, 
Where work of mind doth wat'ry castles make. 
But calm awhile your over-weening vaunts : 
Prepare belief, and do not use your eyes. 



Excellent QUEEN, true Adamant of Hearts; 
Out of that sacred garland ever grew 
Garlands of Virtues, Beauties, and Perfections, 
That Crowns your Crown, and dims your Fortune's 

beams. 
Vouchsafe some branch, some precious flower, or 

leaf. 
Which, though it wither in my barren verse. 
May yet suffice to overshade and drown 
The rocks admired of this demy-god. 
Proteus, stout Iron-homager to your rock. 
In praise of Force, and Instruments of wars. 
Hath praise ended : yet place our praises right ; 
For Force to Will, and Wars to Peace to yield. 
But that I'll give you. This I would fain know, 
What can your Iron do without Arms of Men? 
And Arms of Men from Hearts of Men do move : 
That Hearts of Men hath it, their motion springs. 
Lo, Proteus, then, the attractive Eock of Hearts r 
Hearts, which once truly touched with her Beams, 
Inspiring purest zeal and reverence 
As well unto the Person, as the Power, 
Do streight put off all temper that is false, 

83 



All hollow fear, and schooled flattery, 
Turn Fortune's wheel, they ever keep their point. 
And stand direct upon the Loyal Line. 
Your Eock claims kindred of the Polar Star, 
Because it draws the Needle to the North; 
Yet even that Star gives place to Cynthia's rays. 
Whose drawing virtues govern and direct 
The flots and reflots of the ocean. 
But Cynthia, praised be your wat'ry reign, 
Your influence in Spirits have no place. 
This Cynthia high doth rule those heavenly tides, 
f "Whose sovereign grace, as it doth wax or wain, 
' Affections so, and Fortune's ebb and flow: 

Sometimes their waves applauding on the Shore, 
Sometimes retiring to their narrow depths. 
The holy Syrians draw pilgrims from all parts. 
To pass the mountains, seas, and desert sands. 
/ Unto/ this living Saint have Princes high. 
Of Foreign lands, made vowed pilgrimage. 
"What excellencies are there in this frame. 
Of all things, which her virtue doth not draw? 
The Quintessence of Wits, the Fire of Loves, 
The Art of Fame, Metals of Courages, 
And by her Virtue long may fixed be 
The Wheel of Fortune, and the Carr of Time. 
In the Protection of this mighty Eock, 
In Britain land, whilst tempests abroad. 
The lordly and the lowly shepherd both, 
In plenteous peace have fed their happy flocks. 
Upon the force of this inviolate Eock, 
The giant-like attempts of Power unjust 
Have suffer 'd wreck. And, Proteus, for the Seas, 
Whose Empire large your praised Eock assures : 
Your gift is void, it is already here; 

84 



As Russia, China and Negellan's Strait 

Can witness here, well may your presence be 

Impressa, apt thereof; but sure, not cause. 

Fisher divine, congratulate yourself, 

Your eyes, hath won more than your State hath lost; 

Yield Victory, and Liberty, and Thanks. 

Proteus. 

Against the Truth, that's Lands and Seas above, 

It fits no Proteus make a vain reply. 

The shallop may not with small ships contend. 

Nor windy bubble with a billow strive. 

Nor earthly things compare with greatest Queen 

That hath and shall a regal sceptre sway. 

Bless 'd be that Prince that forc'd me see this Grace, 

Which worldly Monarchies, and Sea-Powers adore. 

Take Thanks of Gift, and Liberty of Due. 

When these Speeches were thus delivered, Proteus, with 
his bident (sic) striking of adamant, which was mentioned 
in the Speeches, made utterances for the Prince, and his 
seven Knights, who had given themselves as hostages 
for the performance of the Covenants between the Prince 
and Proteus, as is declared in the Speeches. Hereat Pro- 
teus, Amphitrite, and Thamesis, with their attendants, 
the Nymphs and Tritons, went unto the rock, and then the 
Prince and the seven Knights issued forth of the rock, in 
a very stately mask, very richly attired, and gallantly 
provided of all things meet for the performance of so 
great an enterprise. They came forth of the rock in 
couples, and before every couple came two pigmies with 
torches. At their first coming on the Stage, they danced 
a new devised measure, &c. After which, they took unto 
them Ladies ; and with them they danced their galliards, 

85 



courants, &c. And they danced another new measure*^ 
after the end whereof, the pigmies brought eight escutch- 
eons, with the maskers devices thereupon, and delivered 
them to the Esquire, who offered them to her Majesty; 
which being done, they took their order again, and, with 
a new strain, went all into the rock; at which time there 
was sung another new Hymn within the rock. 



The second Hymn, which was sung at the departure of 
the Maskers into the Rock. 

Shadows before the shining Sun do vanish: 
Th' iron-forcing Adamant doth resign 
His virtues, where the Diamond doth shine, 

Pure Holiness doth all Inchantments blemish (sic) ; 

And Councellors of false Principality 
Do fade in presence of true Majesty. 

Shepherds sometimes in Lion's-skins were cloath'd; 
But when the Royal Lion doth appear. 
What wonder if the silly swains, for fear. 

Their bravery, and Princely pall have loath 'd? 
The Lion's-skin, that grac'd our vanity, 
Falls down in presence of her Majesty. 



The Impresses which the Maskers used upon their Es- 
cutcheons, for their Devices. 

H. Helms, Prince. In a bark of a cedar-tree, the charac- 
ter E engraven. Crescetis. 

W. Cooke. In a plain shield, as it were Abrassa tabula. 
Quid ipsa velis. 

83 



Jarvis T every. A tortoise, with his head out of the shelL 
Ohnoxia. 

J oh. Lambert. A torch by the sun. Quis furor. 

Molineux. A river with many turnings running into the 
sea. Semper ad mare. 

Crimes. A flag streaming in the wind. Famamque fove- 
mus inanem. 

Paylor. A sail and an oar together. Fors & Virtus mis- 
centur in unwn. 

Campnies. A flag of fire wavering upwards. Tremet S 
ardet. 

For the present her Majesty graced every one; par- 
ticularly, she thanked his Highness for the performance 
of all that was done; and wished that their sports had 
continued longer, for the pleasure she took therein;, 
which may well appear from her answer to the Courtiers, 
who danced a measure immediately after the mask was 
ended, saying, ''What! shall we have bread and cheese 
after a banquet T' Her majesty willed the Lord Cham- 
berlain, that the gentlemen should be invited on the next 
day, and that he should present them unto her. Which 
was done, and her Majesty gave them her hand to kiss, 
with most gracious words of commendations to them par- 
ticularly, and in general of Gray's-Inn, as an House she 
was much beholden unto, for that it did always study for 
some sports to present unto her. 

The same night there was fighting at barriers; the 
Earl of Essex and others challengers, and the Earl of 
Cumberland and his company defendants; into which 
number our Prince was taken, and behaved himself so 
valiantly and skilfully therein, that he had the prize ad- 
judged due unto him, which it pleased her Majesty to de- 

S7 



liver him with her own hands, telling him, ''That it was 
not her gift ; for if it had, it should have been better ; but 
she gave it him as that prize which was due to his desert 
and good behaviour in those exercises ; and that hereafter 
he should be remembered with a better reward from her- 
self." The prize was a jewel set with seventeen dia- 
monds and four rubies, in value accounted worth an hun- 
dred marks. 

Thus, on Shrove Tuesday, at the Court, were our 
sports and revels ended: so that our Christmas would 
not leave us, till such time as Lent was ready to enter- 
tain us, which hath always been accounted a time most 
apt, and wholly dedicated to repentance. But now our 
Principality is determined, which although it shined 
very bright in ours and others' darkness, yet, at the 
Royal Presence of her Majesty, it appeared as an ob- 
scured shadow : in this, not unlike unto the Morning-star, 
which looketh very chearfully in the World, so long as 
the Sun looketh not on it: or, as the Great Rivers, that 
triumph in the Multitude of their Waters, until they come 
unto the Sea. aS'?'c vinci, sic mori pidchrum! 



INDEX 

(To Introduction) 



Alleyn, Edward xxxviii, xlvi 

Bacon, Anthony viii, Ivi, Ivii, Ixi, Ixii, Ixiii 

Bacon, Francis, iii, iv, v, x, xi. xii, xiii, xv, xvi, xvii, xviii, xix, xx, xxiii, 

xxiv, xxvii. xxxiii, xxxiv, xxxix, xl, xli, xil, 1, li, Iii, liv, Iviii, 

Ixii. Ixiii, Ixxi, Ixxiii, Ixxvi, Ixxvii, Ixxxiii. 

Bacon, Friar Ixx. Ixxi. Ixxvi 

Bacon. Roger Ixx, Ixxi 

Bellott, Steplien Ixii 

Bollivant, Edmund xxxiii 

Bruce. John xi 

Buc. Sir George xliii. xliv 

Buclvhurst, Lord ix, xii 

Bullen, A. H viii 

Bungay, Friar Ixx, Ixxvi 

Burbage, Cuthbert xiv 

Burbage, James xiv 

Burbage, Richard xxxix. xlvi 

Burleigh, Lord xli. xil 

Caesar, Sir Julius Iviii 

Campbell, Lord liv 

Campion, Edward xxiii 

Campion. Thomas vi. xii, xviii. xix, xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv 

Canning, W iv, xi, xii 

Carey. Sir Henry xl, xliv 

Carleton, Dudley Ixi 

Cecil, Anne xliv 

Cecil, Sir Robert ix. Iii. liv 

Cecil, William. Lord xvi. xli. xliv, xil 

Chamberlain, John Iii. Ixi, Ixii 

Charles I, King ixiii 

Chettle. Henry xxxvii 

Clement IV. Pope Ixxi 

Coke. Sir Edward iv. xvi. xxxiv. Ivii, Iviii, lix 

Condell, Henry xv 

Compton. Lord xiv 

Cooke, Edward xxv 

Cooke, John xxv 

Cooke, William xxxiv 

Cumberland, George Clifford, Earl of ix, xxv, xxvii 

Curie. Mr. Auditor i 

Davenant, William Ixiv 

Davies, John, of Hereford Ixv 

Davison, Christopher ix 

Davison, Francis vi, vii, viii, ix, xii, xx, Ivii 

Davison, Sir William viii, ix 

Derby, Earl of xlvi, xlvii 

Dobell, Bertram xlii 

Donne, Dr. John Ixi 

Dudley, Sir Robert x 



Dyer, Sir Edward Ixi 

East, Thomas xxxiii 

Elizabeth, Queen iv, viii, xiii, xxi, xxviii xlv, lii 

Erb, Frederic W iv 

Essex, Earl of viii, ix, xiv. xv, xxv, xxvii, liii, Ixi, Ixii 

FalstaCf, Sir John liii 

Field, Nathaniel Ix 

Field, Bishop Theophilus Ix 

Fish, Simon xxiv 

Fletcher, Anthony xxv 

Gascoigne, George xxiv, Ixix 

Gesta, Grayorum. iii, iv, v, vi, ix. x, xi, xii, xiii, xvii, xxiii, xxv, xxvii, 
xxxiii, XXXV, xli, xiii, xlvi. 

Goodere, Sir Henry Ixi 

Gray, Lords xxvii 

Greene, Robert, xxxviii, Iv, Ixvii, Ixviii, Ixix, Ixx, Ixxiii, Ixxiv, Ixxv, Ixxvl 

Guizo, Stuf ano xxxii 

Hamlet xv, xlvi, xvi, Ix, Ixi, Ixviii, Ixix 

lielme. Sir Henry vii. x, xxiii, xxiv, xxv, xxviii 

Heminge, John xiv, xv, Ix 

Henneage, Sir Thomas ix, li 

Herbert, Sir Henry xliv, Ixiii, Ixiv 

Herbert, Philip Ixiv 

Heywood, Jasper Ixi 

Hobby, Sir Edward xliv. xlv 

Hobby, Sir Tliomas xxxiii 

Howard, Lord Thomas ix 

Hunsdon, Lord xl 

James I. King xxviii 

Jonson, Ben Ixiv 

John, of London Ixxi, Ixxiii 

Johannes, Factotum Ixxi 

Johannes, Peur Ixx, Ixxi 

Keepe, Henry xii 

Kempe, William xxxix. lix, Ix. Ixi 

Killigrew, Sir Robert Ixiii 

Killigrew, Thomas Ixiii, Ixiv 

Killigrew, William Ixiii 

Lillie. John xxv 

Lodge. Tliomas xlvii, xii. xlvi. Ixi. Ixviii 

Lucy, Sir Thomas xxxiv 

Lucy, Sir Thomas, wife of liii 

Lyly. John xii, xlvi 

Manningham. John Iviii 

Manwood, Sir Roger Ivii. Iviii 

Meres. Francis xix, xxxix 

J\ionteagle, Lord ix 

Montgomery. Philip Herbert. Earl of Ixiv 

Montjoy, Lord ix 

Montjoy, Mary Ixii 

Montjoy. the Tire-maker Ixii 

Xashe. Thomas xxxvii. xxxviii, xlvi. Ix, Ixvii. Ixviii. Ixix 

Navarre. Henry, King of Ivi 

Nichols. John xii 

Northumberland, Earl of ix 



Noi-thumherland, Duke of xi 

Northnmheiiand, Manuscript ix 

Koy. Ueports iv 

Oxford, Earl of xlvi 

Paulet, Sir Amias viii 

Phillips, Augustine xiv 

Phillipps, Halliwell xl. xil. Ixv, Ixvi 

Portpoole, Prince of, viii, x, xviii, xxiii, xxiv, xxv, xxvi, xxviii, xxix, 

xxxi, xxxii, xxxvi. 

Rowe. Nicholas xivi 

Russell, Lady Elizabeth xlv, xlviii 

Russell, John, Lord xliv 

Russell. Thomas xlv 

Sackville, Thomas xii 

Shagbag, Johannis • • • .-.^^^'^^ 

Shakescene • xxxviii, Ixx 

Shakespeare, William, ill, iv, xi, xiii. xiv, xix, xxxi, xxxiv, xxxvii, 

xxxviii, xxxix, xl, xli, xlii, xliii, xlv, xlvi, xil, 1, liv, Ix, Ixiv. Ixv, 

Ixvi. Ixvii, Ixxi, Ixxiii. 

Sidney, Sir Philip xxxiii, Ixi 

Smith, Hon. Mathew iv, xi 

Smith, Thomas xxv 

Shrewsbury, Earl of ix 

Southampton, Countess of liii, liv 

Southampton. Earl of ix, xil, 1, li, lii, liv 

Spedding, James v, vi, xxi 

Spencer, Edmund xxxvii 

Stanley, William, Earl of Derby xlvi 

Tllney, Edmund xliii. xliv 

Tompkins. Thomas xxv 

Trott, Nicholas xxiv 

Tyrwhitt • Ixvii 

Underbill. William Gent Ixvi, Ixvii 

Underbill, Hercules Ixvii 

Vernon, Elizabeth lii, liii 

Vere, Susan, Countess of Montgomery xliv 

Wallace, C. W., Dr xv, Ix, Ixv 

Wentworth, Philip xxv 

White, W. A iv 

Wiler, ^Master Rogers lix 

Windsor, Lord ix 

Wither George Ixix 

Wolsey. Cardinal xxiv 

Wriotbesley. Henry, od Earl of Southampton xii 

Yelverton. Christopher xxiv, xxv. xxvii 

Yelverton, Mabel xxvi 

I'elverton, William xxv, xxvi 



INDEX 

(To Essays) 



Alleyu, Giles 84, 85 

Aurelius, Abraham 151 

Bacon, Anne, Lady. . .27, 50, 51, 50, 88, 80, 92, 93, 94, 97, 98, 101, 102, 120 
Bacon, Anthony. .27, 52, 62, 63, 67, 84, 88, 89, 01, 02, 93, 94, 151. 156, 161 

Bacon, Sir Edmund 22, 27, 28, 108 

Bacon, Edward 22, 51. 52, 108 

Bacon, Francis, 2, 3, 6, 14, 18, 22. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 
36, 37, 38, 42, 44, 45, 48, 40, 50, 51, 52, 54, 61. 62, 65. 67. 68, 77 
70. 83, 84. 86, 87, 80. 00. 02, 05. 07, 08, 00, 100, 101, 102. 104, 105 
107, 120. 123, 128, 120, 1.34, 136, 140, 144, 145, 147, 140. 151. 155 
156, 158, 150, 160, 168. 

Bacon, Francis, Vicar of Ansley 187, 188 

Bacon, Henry 168 

Bacon, Jane, Lady 22 

Bacon, John 107, 149 

Bacon, Margaret 22 

Bacon, Margery 108 

Bacon, Mathias 28, 20 

Bacon, Matthew 20, 30, 31 

Bacon, Nathaniel 52 

Bacon, Sir Nathaniel 22 

Bacon, Sir Nicholas 20, 22, 27. 50, 52, 50. 83, 01, 110, 143, 152, 157 

Bacon, Sir William 22 

Bacon, Thomas 22 

Bacoun, The Abbot 56 

Bakon. Will 158 

Basshe, Edward. Esq 82 

Bayning, Paul, Viscount 145 

Beeston, Hugh 131,- 134 

Belknap, Sir Edward 158 

Belknap, Elizabeth 57 

Belknap, Sir Henry 57 

Belknaps, The 158, 160 

Belott, Stephen 151 

Belott. Thomas 152 

Bettenham, Jermy 41 

Boleyn, Anne 20 

Breton, Nicholas 140 

Brooke, Elizabeth 104 

Brooke. Henry 27, 104 

Buc. Sir George 14, 16. 27, 28, 31, 32, 33 

Buck, John 16 

Bucke. George 124 

Buckingham, Earl of 31 

Brydges, Sir Egerton 162 

Burbage, Cuthbert 83, 85. 86. 135. 140 

Burbage, James 27, &4. 70. 83. 135 

Burbage, Richard 15, 23, 66, 70 

Burbage, Robert 70. 185 



Burbage, Thomas 79, 82, S3 

Burbage, William 84 

Butler, Sir John 82 

Butts. Sir William 20, 21, 22, 154, 155 

Camden, William 28 

Carey, Sir George 27 

Carey, Sir Henry| 25, 26, 27, 63, 68 

Carey, Margaret 26. 68 

Carleton. Sir Dudley 130, 132, 133, 137, 138, 144. 145 

Castol, John 151 

Caulton, Anne 59 

Cecil, Anne, Countess of Oxford • • 162, 165 

Cecil, Mildred 59 

Cecil. Sir Robert 37. 47. 48, 100, 101. 104. 108. 128, 131 

Cecil, William, Lord Burleigh 26, 47. 59. 128. 135, 152, 156. 163. 165 

Chamberlain. John 136, 137, 140. 142. 143, 144. 148 

Chaucer, Thomas 108 

Chester. Robert 79 

Chester, Sir Robert 82 

Cobham, Lord 27, 104. 148 

Coke, Sir Edward 35, 37, 38, 39, 62. 63, 107, 108 

Collier, Payne 120, 177 

Colepepper, Tliomas 57 

Combe. John 64, 140 

Cook, Sir Anthony 57, 58, 59, 105 

Cook, William 52, 62, 63 

Cooke, Anne 53 

Cooke, Sir Anthony ,50, 77, 78. 83 

Cooke, Elizabeth 68 

Cooke, James 72 

Cooke, Sir John Philip 57 

Cooke. Margaret 54, 83. 88 

Cooke, Mildred 47. 59. 86. 156 

Cooke, Sir Thomas 18, 57, 59. 62, 105, 106, 107 

Cooke, William 86 

Cooke, Sir William 54, 62, 63, 79 

Cope, Sir Walter 131, 134! 135 

Cope, Watt 131, 132. 144 

Copley, Sir Thomas 160 

Cornwallis, Sir William 22 

Cromwell, Thomas 19, 20 

Curie. Mr. Auditor .' i 

Dandy. Arthur 118, 119 

Daundie. Thomas 118 

Da vies. John of Hereford 118 

De Arden, William 57 

De Bret, William 57 

De la Poole, Alice 108 

De la Poole. William 108 

De Reinalme. Astanius 152 

Deveraux, Walter 110 

Donnelly. Ignatius 34. 37 

Drayton. Michael .30, 53. 54, 56. 59, 72, 73, 74, 75. 77, 108 

Dudley, Ambrose 50 

Dudley, Robert 50 

Dugdale, Sir William 59 



Dyer, Lord Chief Justice 122 

Edgerton, Sir Tiiomas 46, 99 

Edmunds, Sir Thomas 135 

Edward IV, Kiug 17 

Elizabeth, Queen 3, 25, 27. 47. 50. 58. 63. 66, SO, 87, 108, 132, 147, 168 

Essex, Earl of 26, 28, 48, 63, 99. 100, 109, 110, 143, 145, 147, 148 

Falstaff, Sir John 105, 107, 110, 112, 116, 118 

Fastolf , Alice 107 

Fastolfe. Anne 118 

Fastolf, Henry 20 

Fastolf. John 107 

Fastolf, Sir John, 18, 103, 104, 105, 106. 107, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115 
117. 118. 

Fastolf. Lionell 107 

Fastolf. Millicent 115 

Fastolf, Nicholas 113 

Fastolf. Thomas 107, 112, 113 

Fastolf, Thomas 110 

Fen ton. Roger 5, 6 

Feme, Sir John 129 

Field, Richard 64, 138 

Fitzroy. Henry 20 

Fitz-William, Anne 58 

Fitz- William, Sir William 58 

Fitton, Anne, Lady Newdigate 86 

Fleetwood. William 91, 159 

Fletcher. Giles 87 

Fletcher. John 136 

Fletcher. Reginald J 87 

Fortescue, Sir John 98, 99 

Gardiner, Stephen 19 

Gascoyne, William 18, 169, 173 

Giles. Karoll 115 

Gilbert. Dr 131, 137, 144 

Glenham, Anne, Lady 145 

Glenham, Sir Henry 145 

Goodere, Anne 53 

Goodere, Frances 52, 53, 76 

Goodere, Henry 53 

Goodere, Sir Henry 52, 53, 54, 60, 71, 75, 76, 77 

Goodere, William 53 

Goodier, Sir Francis 53 

Goss, Charles W. F 150, 152 

Gray, Elizabeth 57 

Gray. Lady Jane 76 

Greville. Fulke 63, 90 

Grey. Elizabeth, Lady 57 

Greene, Robert 64, 122, 162 

Greenwood, Sir George 155 

Guy, John 13 

Hales, Dame 126 

Hales. Sir James 123 

Hall. Dr. John 72 

Hamlet, ..120, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127 

Harvey, Dr. William 145 



Hartopp, George 155 

Hardreskull, William de 56 

Haut, Sir William 57 

Hay ward, John 145 

Hemiuge, John 33, 34 

Heneage, Sir Thomas 27, 28. 101. 125 

Herhert, George 32 

Herbert, Sir Henry 26, 31, 33 

Herbert, Philip. Earl of Montgomery 31, 32, 33, 34. 168 

Herbert. William, Earl of Pembroke 31. 33. 34 

Heron. Mr. A 5 

Heywood. Jasper 124, 125 

Hicks. Sir Michael 6. 144 

Hobby, Sir Edward 26. 68 

Hobey. Sir Thomas 68, 83 

Hudson, James 86 

Hudson, John 86 

Hudson, Richard 84, 85, 86 

Hunsdon, First Lord > 27 

Hunsdon, Second Lord 25, 26, 27, 63, 68 

Hyde. John 1.35 

Jessopp, Augustus 156 

Jonson. Ben 30. 31. 73. 74. 75, 106. 120. 136. 147 

Johnson. William 34. 37, 40. 41, 43, 44 

Jones. Ed 40 

Kempe. Robert 98 

Kempe. William 45. 66 

King Edward VI 50. 51 

Killigrew. Sir Henr.v 59 

Killigrew, Katharine 59 

Knight, Robert 87. 88 

Lea, Sir Harry 142 

Lea, Sir Richard 142 

Lee, Sir Sidney 124 

Leicester, Earl of 50 

Lorkin, Thomas 22, 23 

Lucy. Joyce , 54, 59. 62. 63 

Lucy. Sir Thomas 54. 59. 60. 61, 62. 63, 79 

Lupus. Hugh 55. 62 

Manningham. John 1 

Marchall, William 170 

Maxey, Amias 86 

Maxe.v, Sir Henr.v 86 

Markham. Sir John 17. 18 

Mathew, Tobie 32, 52, 130, 131 

Meautys, Sir Thomas • ■ 22, 32 

Meschines. Ranueph de 55 

Mills. William 41 

Moleyns. Sir William 108 

Montjoy. Christopher 151, 153, 155 

More. Sheriff 44, 48 

Moore. Sir William 83 

Morgan. Dr. Appleton 46 

Nashe. Thomas 120. 121. 122. 124. 125. 126. 154 

Neville. Sir Henry 143 

Norton, John 138 



Norfolk, Duke of . 163 

Noy, Sir AVilliam 44 

Oekhold, Richard 16 

Oldcastle, Sir John .• 103, 104, 112 

Osborne, Alice 168 

Osborne, Frances 168 

Osborne. John 168 

Osborne. Thomas 84. 85 

Oxford, Anne, Countess of 162, 165 

Oxford. Edward de A'ere. P]arl of 162, 163 

Parker, Catherine 53 

Parker, Edmond 58 

Parker, Michael 58 

Parker, Ralph 56 

I'arker. William r 53 

Paulett. Sir Amias 51. 95, 97 

Paulett, Lady 95, 96 

Parsons, Father 156, 157 

Paston, Bridget 107 

Paston, Sir John 115 

Paston. John 115. 116 

Pembroke. Philip Herbert. Earl of 65 

Phillips, Halliwell 23 

Pole, Thomas 159 

Poynings, Edward 107 

Puckeringe. John 20 

Puckeringe. Sir Thomas 22 

Plirefooy. Francis 56 

Quarles. Edmund 118 

Quarles, Francis 118 

Quiney. Judith 78 

Rainsford. Sir Henry 76 

Raleigh. Sir Walter 23, 108 

Rawley. William. Chaplain 60 

Reynolds. Henry. Esq 71, 73 

Riche. Barnaby 152 

Rivers, Lady 18 

Rivers. Lord 18 

Rowlett, Radus 88 

Rowlett, Sir Riilph 53. 54. 82, 83, 88 

Russell, Anne 147 

Russell. Elizabeth. Lady 50, 59, 147 

Russell. Sir John 50, 59 

Sackville. Sir Edward 32 

Scrope. Mellicent 106 

Scrope. Poulett 116. 169 

Scrope, Sir Stephen 118, 119, 176 

Segar, W^illiam 15. 43 

Seymour, Jane 20' 

Shakespeare. William. 1. 3. 4. 14. IS. 20. 23, 25. 26, 27. 28, 30. 31. 33, 50 
52. 63. 64. 65. 67 .68. 72. 73, 75. 79. 84, 89, 90, 93, 97, 103. 104, 105 
106. 108. 110. 118. 123. 124, 126, 128, 129. 136, 140, 145, 149, 151 
154. 158. 159, 168. 187. 

Shaw. Weston 53 

Shaxton, Mr 5, 6 

Shelley, John, Esq 158 



Sidney, Sir Robert 23 

Smith, Toulmin 37, 73 

Somerscales, John 2, 3 

Southampton, Henry Herbert, Earl of 6, 23, 24, 26 

Stopes, Mrs. Charlotte 84 

Southern, John 164, 165 

Tarlton, Richard 178 

Tilney, p:dmund 27, 149, 177, 179, 180, 181. 183 

Tilney, Edward 16, 17 

Tilney. Robert 17 

Tomlins. Thomas Edlyne 179 

Trott, Nicholas 39, 142 

Turner. Dawson 110 

Underbill. Bridget 145 

Underbill. Hercules 145 

Underbill. Sir Hercules • 160 

Underbill. Nicholas 158 

I'nderhill, Sir Thomas 145 

Van Lore. Peter 91 

Vere. Susan. Countess of Montgomery 32 

AValdgrave. Sir William 59, 60 

Waldgrave, Avice 59 

Wallver. Henry 31, 34 

Wallace. Prof. C. W 31, 135. 151. 152 

AValsingbam. Sir Francis 149, 178 

AVard. Rev. John 73 

Warren, William Earl 15S 

White. Rowland 23 

Whitgift. Bishop 3, 126 

Wilson, Robert 178 

Willoughby, Ambrose 23 

Windsor, Lord 151 

Winwood, Sir Ralph '. 135 

Wolsey, Cardinal 19, 20, 23, 135 

Wormiaighton, Ralph 155 

Wotton, Sir Henry 22 

Wright, Christopher 56 

Wright. Jane 56 

Wyrcester, William 115 



The Gesta Grayorum not indexed 



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